To a point, youngsters today do the same thing. Math books still teach making change, but to the student, why commit it to long term memory when the cash register figures it for you?
I've learned many things in life, and had to relearn some of them because for whatever reason, I never had to use them until recently or 10 years ago. Don't use it, you lose it.
This could hold true for this young person. In 1950, cash registers only kept a running total of the purchases. You had to know how to make change. In 2006 they calculate change, make a coupon, say thank you and give you an 800 number to call to register your customer satisfaction and track your purchases if you paid with a credit card.
Excellent points joesbucks. Both kids and adults naturally will tend to learn what will get them the most "bang for the buck".
I do get a chuckle about kids that can't count back change correctly (although problems with that in TN seem to be much less frequent these days - maybe schools or the businesses are teaching it).
However, maybe we should remember that while some kid might not know how to count back change, he/she might get a chuckle to find out that we can't do something that they can do with ease - like program a computer application or build a web page in HTML, etc.
Fletcher J