The Cash Register Told Me To Do It

My first REAL job was in a grocery store. At that time, there was at least one register that required the cashier to count back the money. For me, that was the fun part. But I’ve always been a math nerd. I have vivid memories of playing Monopoly when I was 7 and I ALWAYS had to be the banker. Within, the last couple of years when I played Monopoly again, imagine the unspeakable horror I felt when I saw people using a CALCULATOR to count their money! This leads to a pet peeve that many of us have along with a solution to the problem. Who among us has never confused a cashier by giving them $10.25 when your total is $5.25. When they accidentally key in $10 as cash received, they have no idea how to count back the change. Sorry to say, but we’ve created this culture ourselves by always allowing the use of computers and calculators. I don’t want to live without them but I believe they shouldn’t take the place of learning basic fundamental math. Our teachers are working hard to educate our kids but their curriculum requirements do not always leave the time to strengthen the fundamentals. That’s where we come in…we the parents. Somehow, over the years, the burden of education has shifted to the public schools. While we can’t control what is taught in a public institution, we CAN work with our own children to make sure that they have the basic math skills needed to manage their own financial futures. And to count back our change, when necessary, when the cash register doesn’t tell them what to do!