Basic Math
“If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a million times, don’t exaggerate.”
Arithmetic and mathematics were my favorite subjects in school. I think it was because there are always “right” answers. 2+2 always equals 4. It is never 3 or 5 depending upon our perspective or background. It is always the same. The answer is either right or wrong. There are no gray areas. It wasn’t until I got into the most advanced calculus in college that I learned that in some situations there may be approximations.
100% means 100 out of 100 or all. 50% means 50 out of 100. The first time I heard someone say that an athlete or someone else had given 110% it was obviously a hyperbole joke. Since then, I have heard of a lot of people giving 110% which must drive the math teachers nuts.
When I was a child, I was a member of the 4-H Club. The four “Hs” are Head, Heart, Hands, and Health. We started every meeting with the 4-H Pledge which starts with “I pledge my head to clearly thinking.” To me that means using basic math correctly. If I have six pencils, I can give you five and still have one to write with. If I have five pencils, I can’t give you six because I only had five. If I make $4,000 per month, I can’t spend $5,000.
I have noticed recently that some business leaders and even more politicians apparently didn’t grasp the most basic understanding of mathematics. If someone says that they will reduce the cost of drugs 600% or 800%, it doesn’t say anything about the price of drugs, it tells me that they must not have gotten past the third grade in school. A 100% reduction would mean they are free. There is no such thing as 600% reduction without going into negative numbers and having the drug companies pay us huge amounts when we pick up our prescriptions.
The government recently announced that sinking a boat allegedly carrying drugs saved 200 million American lives. Considering that the current population of the USA is 338 million, they were saying that one shipment of drugs would kill 60% of the population. The fact that this was not immediately challenged or laughed off as a joke indicates a disturbing trend and an indictment of our education system.
The old school teaching was the “Three Rs” - “Reading. ‘riting, and ‘rithmetic.” Today we pretty much assume that these things are universal, but that is apparently far from the case. How about requiring some kind of a competency test for people running for public office that would include their credit report, tax return, and SAT scores. Oh, and maybe a method of discerning their basic math skills.