It is appalling, isn’t it?
Not just writing and grammar, either. I was in the grocery store a couple days ago to buy some roast beef. I asked the young man (maybe 18 or 19) at the deli for eight ounces. He said “We don’t sell it by the ounce, only by the pound.” Hoo boy. I’d heard this before at another store in town.
I asked him “What fraction of a pound is eight ounces?”
“I dunno.”
“OK, how many ounces in a pound”
“I dunno.”
“There are sixteen ounces in a pound. I want eight ounces. What fraction of a pound is that?”
“I dunno.”
“Eight ounces is half of sixteen. How much do I want?
“I dunno”
(going nuts with exasperation) “I want a half pound.”
We are so doomed. At least he isn’t working at SpaceX.
Oh, Lordy, this is in north Idaho, isn’t it?
I will defend the clerk to some extent. When the “new math” wave hit the school district where I taught, everything became calculator-based. It was mandatory. No more learning about doing math in your head, making estimates, etc.
Teachers were even forbidden to teach the times tables! An elementary teacher I knew passed out the times tables to her class. Can’t hurt, right? Well, the principal found out and ordered her to collect all those times tables. Students are not to have times tables. They distract from the calculator.
Most teachers try, they really do. But they are now lead by administrators who are woke, vindictive, and incompetent. (Really bad combo, there.)
That doesn’t surprise me at all. It is very common, when they have to give change, that they cannot count the change.