June 29, 2005
Why Johnny can’t multiplyHumor
(But Suresh Venkatasubramanian can): Sunil Laxman says there are advantages to the desi approach of by-hearting your maths. Namely that you don’t look like an idiot when asked to multiply two small numbers.
My wife went to the bank yesterday to make a simple cash deposit… in two $100 bills, and nine $20 bills…“Hey John, what’s 9*20? There’s some problem with my computer.” My wife’s standing there, and her jaw drops… Meanwhile, John’s breaking into a sweat.
“Uh….I’m not sure….9 times 20 is….”
My wife’s getting impatient… “One hundred and eighty,” she says.
John looks at her in awe, and says, “I think you’re right! You must be really good with numbers…”
I’m in awe of the cashiers in little, obscure banks in India (State Bank of Mysore, anyone?) who count faster than you can key in the numbers into a calculator.
This kind of innumeracy is my father’s favorite story about the American education system, right after ‘we were multiplying six-digit numbers in first grade’ (which he inflicted on me) and a Ramanujan-like story where he nearly solves an unsolvable problem, awing the textbook author over parcel post.
Of course, the genius of America is that its systems are so good, you can run a bank with tellers who can’t do math ;)
manish on June 29, 2005 08:19 PM in Humor · T·r·a·c·k·b·a·c·k address · Direct link · Email post
oh dear: here we go again. Just for the record, he mangled my name: it's Venkatasubramanian...
He also mangled my place of work, but who's keeping track :)
Yes, thanks to the "new" math (equals "no" math?), children and young adults are demonstrably unable to do even the most simple of math problems.
I think the cash registers at McDonalds still use little pictures on the keys instead of numbers!
It gets even more painful when you look at their inability to spell! Reading? What's that? Phonics is now a commercial product instead of an academic necessity.
It is just sad what the liberals have done to education in this country.
godless commented on this before....
haha i like your new handle, razib.
I was actually just talking about this on one of my favorite mathy blogs (which I got from another favorite mathy Blog, geomblog of Suresh above), that is, talldarkandmysterous. Moebius Stripper always nice acerbic commentary on the mathematical state of modern youth.
haha i like your new handle, razib.
well, my religion hatred is nothing like richard dawkins or chris hitchens, mostly because i'm too narcissistic to care much what others think if they don't bother me. but it do get irritated when people assume i'm a theist, of any kind. the handle should prevent that.
Yeah, teaching all that 'evolution' and 'natural selection' crap that God never intended ;-)
I know :) It's because I saw the tipping point for you that I find it so funny.
The arithmetic skills of the roadside vegetable sellers in mumbai are absolutely astounding. Even the little boys will be mentally adding up all the "Pau Kilo"prices and will come up with your total in seconds when the convent-educated memsaab will be grimacing with all the numbers in her head. It is so unfortunate that these kids will never have a chance to put their skills to better use.
Premlata
Sunil Laxman write an excellent blog: Balancing Life. Check out his previous posts on child slavery, the perfect dosa, and the bakeries of Bangalore.
OK......I'm pretty pleased to be linked from Sepia (one of my fav. blogs)!
That aside...I think the American system also used to have a lot of these basic drills, atleast till the 60's. My boss (a 60 year old scientist) is fantastic with numbers in his head........but none of my collegues can manage it. Most of us (Indian grad students) do a lot of the sums in our head, while some of my collegues reach out for the calculators for dividing 48 by 8. I believe there is an important place for some "rote learning" in primary education, perhaps up to middle school.
Reminds me of the time when I paid $10 and 13 cents for a $5.13 drive-thru bill and the girl at the window, got all confused, stared at her computer, stared at me, stared at the computer again, looked down at the money again, and then said "Keep this change, sir" and then proceeded to give me the $4.87 too. She then with a confident smile said "It was $5.13 and not $10.13, sir"
The shock made my foot take almost 5 whole seconds to let go of the brake and move on ...
I learnt my tables by rote in India) and could tell any number upto 25 tmes 25 on the spot. That was 55 years ago. Later I went to work in Nigeria where the people considered us Indian professional accountants as coming in from heaven seeing our ability to tote up numbers real fast.
But fifteen years in Nigeria, the increased use of calculators and computers and most importantly change in job specifications ensured that my skills with numbers declined steadily. Today I habitally reach for a calculator, mostly in my computer even for routine additions.
It is necessary to have continuous application of these mental skills to keep them alive. When negotiating million dollar deals I can figure out the interest or other costs in a flash with my old skills. But I have no need to do routine totalling etc nowadays.
this isn't going to help us shake our stereotypes anytime soon.....I guess my dreams of developing other Indian stereotypes such as "they're tall" or "they're great w/ the ladies" are never going to come true
I'm not so old, but in elementary school we had harsh math drills on the "times tables", memorizing multiplication up to 13s... I don't know what they do these days, but are multiplication tables a thing of the past?
one of the best things my mom ever did to teach me numbers was to play snakes n ladders and help me visualize the numbers as physical objects rather than mental concepts. Then from there she taught me the concepts of addition, subtraction multiplication all w/ the same board. though it only went up to 100, it still helps me as of today to visualize numbers and do quick calcs in my head...it's almost like constantly figuring out where the number should be on a game board and just visualizing a 10x10, 20x20 etc board. i don't know if something like this works for anyone as well
I guess my dreams of developing other Indian stereotypes such as "they're tall" or "they're great w/ the ladies" are never going to come true
Yes, but apparently your personal stereotype of "they're all straight men or lesbians" is alive and well. ;-)
hee-
Yes, but apparently your personal stereotype of "they're all straight men or lesbians" is alive and well. ;-)
sorry i'm blanking out here...which post did I say women are lesbians? I've said a lot of outlandish things but I'm not recalling this one?