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Re: We're becoming more illiterate...
Old 01-13-2006, 08:25 AM   #41
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Re: We're becoming more illiterate...

Sounds like the time I went into macdonalds and the cash registers were a little broken. They still rang up orders, gave a total and the cash drawer opened, but they didnt tell the cashier how much change to give. I cant imagine what kind of system failure would result in a partial operation like that, but there it was.

All the cashiers had to ask the manager how much change to give.

Granted, these may not have been the brightest bulbs around, but unable to do simple subtraction when in your late teens?
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Re: We're becoming more illiterate...
Old 01-13-2006, 08:29 AM   #42
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Re: We're becoming more illiterate...

Quote:
Originally Posted by ()
Sounds like the time I went into macdonalds and the cash registers were a little broken. They still rang up orders, gave a total and the cash drawer opened, but they didnt tell the cashier how much change to give.* I cant imagine what kind of system failure would result in a partial operation like that, but there it was.

All the cashiers had to ask the manager how much change to give.

Granted, these may not have been the brightest bulbs around, but unable to do simple subtraction when in your late teens?
This is one of my all time most enraging pet peeves!!!!!!!* I just go out of my mind when a cashier cannot understand the concept of making change.* *I want to scream and rage and throw things at them.....* (oops that was a different thread about female hormones, sorry).*

But seriously!* *
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Re: We're becoming more illiterate...
Old 01-13-2006, 08:35 AM   #43
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Re: We're becoming more illiterate...

Sorry about upsetting you m'am. May I offer you a free Early-Retirement.Org branded donkey?
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Re: We're becoming more illiterate...
Old 01-13-2006, 01:40 PM   #44
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Re: We're becoming more illiterate...

Do I have to be able to tell it from a whole hole in the ground?

Oh, and don't call me Ma'am!

* *
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Re: We're becoming more illiterate...
Old 01-13-2006, 02:04 PM   #45
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Re: We're becoming more illiterate...

Quote:
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Do I have to be able to tell it from a whole in the ground?
Nope. It is one of those talking donkeys. Just ass-k him whether he's a donkey.
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Re: We're becoming more illiterate...
Old 01-13-2006, 02:17 PM   #46
 
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Re: We're becoming more illiterate...

I bought a pair of socks in a Men's Store in West Palm Beach, payed for them with cash, clerk had to get manager to show him how to handle the transaction, everyone else uses plastic.
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Re: We're becoming more illiterate...
Old 01-13-2006, 02:29 PM   #47
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Re: We're becoming more illiterate...

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I bought a pair of socks in a Men's Store in West Palm Beach, payed for them with cash, clerk had to get manager to show him how to handle the transaction, everyone else uses plastic.
What did you expect in West Palm Beach!!
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Re: We're becoming more illiterate...
Old 01-13-2006, 03:03 PM   #48
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Re: We're becoming more illiterate...

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Nope.* It is one of those talking donkeys.* Just ass-k him whether he's a donkey.

So you are the one who ass-napped Dolly

http://early-retirement.org/forums/i...p?topic=5523.0


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Re: We're becoming more illiterate...
Old 01-13-2006, 03:05 PM   #49
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Re: We're becoming more illiterate...

My friend and I were somewhere close to Mojave, CA when we went into a Subway. After the girl made his sandwich, my friend asked if they take Discover. She answers 'yes' and then slides the card about 2-3 times before saying .....

"Ooh, I'm sorry, we only take Discover cards that have a Mastercard logo on them".

My friend, who is usually a smart ass, looks at me, and then quietly gives her his Mastercard and we walked out of the store just shaking our heads.
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Re: We're becoming more illiterate...
Old 01-13-2006, 03:22 PM   #50
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Re: We're becoming more illiterate...

Quote:
Originally Posted by WanderALot
"Ooh, I'm sorry, we only take Discover cards that have a Mastercard logo on them".

My friend, who is usually a smart ass, looks at me, and then quietly gives her his Mastercard and we walked out of the store just shaking our heads.
Your best lines would be sadly wasted on them.

But just imagine what Jerry Seinfeld could do!
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Re: We're becoming more illiterate...
Old 01-13-2006, 06:15 PM   #51
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Re: We're becoming more illiterate...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sheryl
Do I have to be able to tell it from a whole hole in the ground?

Oh, and don't call me Ma'am!
No m'am, its free ass.

Very sorry about the m'am thing, m'am...

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Re: We're becoming more illiterate...
Old 01-14-2006, 07:45 AM   #52
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Re: We're becoming more illiterate...

Here's one worthy of debate. Not sure if its a repost.

California has some folks running around wanting to fund sending every kid to preschool, as there appears to be some correlation between kids that go to preschool doing better than kids who dont.

So is the causation the actual going to preschool, or is it that the parents who send their kids to preschool being more financially capable and/or more interested in their childs education than the parents who dont, or both?
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Re: We're becoming more illiterate...
Old 01-14-2006, 09:33 AM   #53
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Re: We're becoming more illiterate...

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So is the causation the actual going to preschool, or is it that the parents who send their kids to preschool being more financially capable and/or more interested in their childs education than the parents who dont, or both?
Both, would be my bet. But I would also bet that the people running around wanting to do this are too illiterate in logic and reasoning skills to understand the difference between correlation and causation, and therefore have ASS-umed that preschool = success in school.
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Re: We're becoming more illiterate...
Old 01-14-2006, 12:08 PM   #54
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Re: We're becoming more illiterate...

I think its Rob Reiner who is pushing this ahead of his announcement that he's running for governor of california.

Swell. From the governator to governor meathead... :P
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Re: We're becoming more illiterate...
Old 01-14-2006, 02:44 PM   #55
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Re: We're becoming more illiterate...

Quote:
Originally Posted by ()
Here's one worthy of debate. Not sure if its a repost.

California has some folks running around wanting to fund sending every kid to preschool, as there appears to be some correlation between kids that go to preschool doing better than kids who dont.

So is the causation the actual going to preschool, or is it that the parents who send their kids to preschool being more financially capable and/or more interested in their childs education than the parents who dont, or both?
One war on poverty program that showed excellent results was head start. Disadvantaged kids do much, much better in school if they particpated in head start.

It wouldn't surprise me if "advantaged" kids do better in the first couple of years of school if they had preschool. But it also wouldn't surprise me if the non-preschoolers caught up in a year or two.
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Re: We're becoming more illiterate...
Old 01-15-2006, 11:22 AM   #56
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Re: We're becoming more illiterate...

Thanks Martha, I'll have to look into that program, how the participants were chosen and how the results were determined.
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Re: We're becoming more illiterate...
Old 01-19-2006, 06:13 PM   #57
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Re: We're becoming more illiterate...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060119/...llege_students

Nearing a diploma, most college students cannot handle many complex but common tasks, from understanding credit card offers to comparing the cost per ounce of food.

Those are the sobering findings of a study of literacy on college campuses, the first to target the skills of students as they approach the start of their careers.

More than 50 percent of students at four-year schools and more than 75 percent at two-year colleges lacked the skills to perform complex literacy tasks.

That means they could not interpret a table about exercise and blood pressure, understand the arguments of newspaper editorials, compare credit card offers with different interest rates and annual fees or summarize results of a survey about parental involvement in school.

The results cut across three types of literacy: analyzing news stories and other prose, understanding documents and having math skills needed for checkbooks or restaurant tips.

"It is kind of disturbing that a lot of folks are graduating with a degree and they're not going to be able to do those things," said Stephane Baldi, the study's director at the American Institutes for Research, a behavioral and social science research organization.

Most students at community colleges and four-year schools showed intermediate skills, meaning they could perform moderately challenging tasks. Examples include identifying a location on a map, calculating the cost of ordering office supplies or consulting a reference guide to figure out which foods contain a particular vitamin.

There was brighter news.

Overall, the average literacy of college students is significantly higher than that of adults across the nation. Study leaders said that was encouraging but not surprising, given that the spectrum of adults includes those with much less education.

Also, compared with all adults with similar levels of education, college students had superior skills in searching and using information from texts and documents.

"But do they do well enough for a highly educated population? For a knowledge-based economy? The answer is no," said Joni Finney, vice president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, an independent and nonpartisan group.

"This sends a message that we should be monitoring this as a nation, and we don't do it," Finney said. "States have no idea about the knowledge and skills of their college graduates."

The survey examined college and university students nearing the end of their degree programs. The students did the worst on matters involving math, according to the study.

Almost 20 percent of students pursuing four-year degrees had only basic quantitative skills. For example, the students could not estimate if their car had enough gas to get to the service station. About 30 percent of two-year students had only basic math skills.

Baldi and Finney said the survey should be used as a tool. They hope state leaders, educators and university trustees will examine the rigor of courses required of all students.

The survey showed a strong relationship between analytic coursework and literacy. Students in two-year and four-year schools scored higher when they took classes that challenged them to apply theories to practical problems or weigh competing arguments.

The college survey used the same test as the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, the government's examination of English literacy among adults. The results of that study were released in December, showing about one in 20 adults is not literate in English.

On campus, the tests were given in 2003 to a representative sample of 1,827 students at public and private schools. The Pew Charitable Trusts funded the survey.

It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
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