Basic skills and knowledge lacking
20070406.2300
Incident 1:
Guy at work and I get into a discussion of age somehow. I am a lot older than he is. How much? I'm 61. He's 47. The difference, to me, is obvious. He picks up a marker and writes the arithmetic on my whiteboard:
61
-47
---
14
including changing the six to a five to borrow ten for the one's place. Imagine my surprise that a technoid employed in the computer business could not do this third-grade arithmetic in his head. Shudder.
Incident 2:
Some strange discussion we're having ends in an image of a large pile of Krugerrands.
Me: "To be politically correct, that should be Maple Leafs."
Him: "Why? Aren't Krugerrands politically correct?"
Me: "Well, they used not to be."
Him: "Oh, because of apartheid?"
Me: "Well, yeah, that used to be the case, but not for years."
Him: "Oh? What happened?"
Me: "Well, apartheid ended years ago."
Him: "What happened?"
Me: "South Africa is run by a black government. Has been for a decade. You know, Nelson Mandela and all?"
Him: "I don't follow things like that."
An adult in his forties, not ignorant or uneducated.
