Quote:
Originally Posted by cmyx6go
When I was young, my father used to drill us on the multiplication tables at dinner. I have 3 siblings. He would pick one of us each night and then pick a number. What ever it was, you had to recite the table rapid fire to the beat of his hand on the table. 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, 49, 56, 63, 70, 77, 84.
Talk about pressure at 7 years old.
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I struggle with this as someone who is getting on in years, being closer to retirement than I am comfortable with. Is basic arithmetic a needed life skill or was your father wasting your time? What about cursive penmanship? Necessary life skill or a waste of time?
How many of us can raise and harvest our own crops and livestock? Technology took care of that for us and it's no longer seen as a basic life skill.
My nephew had to call a plumber to his new house because the previous owner had hooked the hot and cold water supplies up backwards to the kitchen sink. I was laughing about it and my wife reminded me the only reason I found out is he mentioned it while he was helping me set up my new wifi router that had me baffled. Hmmm. Self reflection time.
Perhaps what fathers need to be doing at the dinner table today is quizzing their kids on coding because the machines take care of the simple stuff.
But yes, at a high level I do agree with you. Doing math in your head should be a basic function of that job. Sadly for the average Sbux employee, the art of pulling a good espresso shot is not part of their knowledge base either as they simply push a button and the technology does the rest.