I was waiting for this to happen, and it happened:
Today, 9 April 2010, in Didsbury, Manchester, in a high street bank (and a very big name bank; I repeat: BANK), a girl at a counter, keeping her hands at a calculator, claimed that 4% of 1000 pounds is 4 pounds — and could not be persuaded that she was wrong.
Mathematics education in this country is now certifiably dead.
Mathematics under the Microscope 
Oh, my! Don’t bank tellers have to pass some kind of a math test?
I just checked with my 5th-grader, who has not gotten to the percents unit yet, but who knows that “percent” is connected to 100ths (because of cents in a dollar). It took her a couple of minutes, but she was able to figure out 4% of 1000 just fine.
By: Denise on April 9, 2010
at 9:11 pm