quote:

Originally posted by flyseye

Geez,

Yeah, the early 1900,s were certainly an intellectual era compared to now. Think of all the organ transplants they did back then, all of the space stations they built,etc. etc. I am too lazy to look up the actual statistics, but I am guessing the % of people who couldnt even read or write was very high.

And the fictional kid who couldnt make change can probably hack a website, create a website, or do many things that most of you who find such things amusing are not capable of. Where in the case of some, they BETTER be able to make change as that is what they will be doing for the rest of their lives, some today just find such things too trvial to bother with. They have much greater ambitions. Good for them.

Have you ever taken a good hard look at the innovations talking monkey’s made at the dawn of the 20th century?

For good or bad, better or worse it was an age of unbelievable growth and invention even by our "superior" standards of today.

We came into our own and discovered there were possibilities beyond our imagination in that era, and that our imagination was truly limitless.

I’ll agree that the modern literacy rate is higher than in them golden olden days but let me strongly suggest that reading comprehension today is…well, just simply not comprehended[:(]!

That is not the way it use to be!

I’d say this started in the last twenty years.

I couldn’t say what report cards look like today but when I went to school reading comprehension was a big part of our grade.

Rare is the person that can look you in the eye today and explain what it is they’ve just read with any true understanding.

You will get what they "feel" about it without really comprehending why it is they feel that way.

I think that’s due to our brains being beat by various media blips and bites and to way much punditry.

I guess it’s easier for a lot of folks to find someone with an opinion on tv they like who can do all the comprehending and thinking for them.
No need to get all bogged down with facts and figures…it’s neater and cleaner when you got someone doing your thinking for you.

Or something to do your thinking for you, like a cash register[;)]!

Trivial huh?

I’ve seen that deer caught in the headlights look many times before and that kid (and adult) sure ain’t fictional, it’s more of an epidemic.

I don’t care where someone comes from in this country or what type of background.
There is no (nada, zip, zero, the null set, equal to none) excuse not knowing how to count money or make change!

The severely mentally impaired can do it for the love of…money!([:I])

If someones grey matter goes into any kind of terminal panic mode on any kind of simple transaction involving United States currency using denominations typically used in fast food joints and gas stations on everyday purchases…they’re totally useless to me!

I could care less what other talents they might have or what they hope to aspire to.

I mean really, how good could it actually be if they can’t countdown simple change in American currency?

Unless they’re perfecting an art form of some kind.

If they’re really really that good, at what ever it is, because they just could’t be bothered with learning to make small change (or just count) and somehow that helped in some small way to inspire some type of genuis, I would just love to be their agent[;)][8D]!