Mom was right - again (Math Problems)

Thinking over my last 26+ years with easy access to cash registers and calculators I've recently learned I am losing my math skills. I've wondered why my employees write down ridiculous numbers on our very important paperwork, numbers that with any thought could never be correct. Yesterday I asked my associate Darlene what 61 minus 5 was. And I sat there waiting for her to give me an answer because a calculator was not at hand. She thought about it for a minute then gave me 3 different answers, the third one was correct.

Math class was never my favorite in high school, I vaguely remember class, I seem to remember I was always in a fog as to what was going on in class. I was probably thinking about boys or how to become popular or some such thing. This all started in 4th (I think) grade when I was sick for a week, I came back not knowing what the teacher was talking about, I know I skipped something important. (I think it was 7 & 8 multiplies cause I never learned them)

At Hartnell (Jr. College) I did pretty good in algebra, that is until I hit advanced algebra where I lost it with logarithms and imaginary numbers (how do we know they are there?). I liked the logic of algebra, the rules and the neat writing and rewriting of numbers with a sharp pencil and white lined paper.

Then came word problems, adding the Johnny and Susie element with apples and trains traveling towards and away from each other only confused me. Leave it at just numbers and I was fine, add the real world to the mix and that was the end of it for me, I couldn't even begin to think how to solve the problem.

Which comes to now, why do I need a calculator to solve a easy subtraction problem? Do I hear my mother rolling over in her grave? Yes that is what I hear! I teased my mom about pulling out a pencil and paper to add/subtract/divide and multiply her Avon numbers, I said, "Mom we have calculators now." She would ignore me and keep on with her stack of numbers on top of numbers, lines and symbols. I would pull out the calculator (my first needed AA batteries) and would solve the problem in a flash. She just kept ignoring me and when she finished she would say that she just checked the calculator and it got it right. How stupid and behind the times she seemed.

That was then, now I know she was right. I have nearly lost the ability to do even the simple math on paper. Asimov had written about this very same social condition in one of his short stories, computers that think take over mankind. When finally a lone man figures out how to use "art sticks" on "art paper" to solve equations. The machines can't see the paper and will not be able to stop humans in their effort to take back society. The man ends up showing this "math" to the military who are impressed, then end up killing him to keep society from knowing this secret.

I am starting to not think about the process of how we get the end result, they are just numbers typed into the calculator and a end number pops up. To many of my employees the end number is just that, an end number they don't think much of. What it means is irrelevant, it is just the answer they got, even if the answer is crazy and impossible it is the number they got.

I think I need to rethink numbers, and the old-fashioned ways of my mother. She lived to be almost 86, her math skills never abated. I think I have a new skill to relearn.

Susan