Random reminder
PEOPLE COUNT
School pupils unite! Kids everywhere are fed up with grownups who look over our maths homework and reveal that they couldn’t do a mapping or a transformation to save their lives. Turn that radio down (they shout) and memorise the number of somethings in an Imperial wotsit. I don't know (they mutter) what the world is coming to. In my day (they grumble) there were no coloured textbooks and we got thrashed for breathing and only cold gravel for play-lunch, but my word our teachers could teach! Well, Bridget Sewell in England has just exploded THAT myth. Bridget isn’t exactly a school pupil, more of a student at Reading University, but she and some other students went out into the streets of Reading to hunt down 3000 people over 45 and ask. them some questions. Like, what’s a 10 per cent tip on a meal that costs three pounds 53 p? How many fives in 65?
What is the total cost of a 17p coffee and a 24p sandwich? A 25 per cent reduction means that the price is now (choose one) (Vi) (>/ 2 ) (%) (4/5) of what it was before. Why do prices rise if inflation falls from 20 per cent to 15 per cent? How many eggs in nine dozen? The average 45-year-old-and-up stood around forever, shuffling its feet, muttering “er-ah-let-me-see” and giving wrong answers. The control group — kids — whizzed through. How about something similar for Christchurch? ■ Any bright sixth form with some clip-boards and a Xerox machine could do it. Of course, when your senior citizen does give up, its no use lending them a calculator. Perhaps Ferrymead Museum has got a few slates and slate-pencils?
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19820602.2.172
Bibliographic details
Press, 2 June 1982, Page 32
Word Count
282Random reminder Press, 2 June 1982, Page 32
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Acknowledgements
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