A personal anecote: a man who operates a Lindt candy shop in one of our New Jersey malls wished to hire part-time help, as do many small businesses during the Christmas season. So he hired a recent high school graduate.
As he tried to instruct her in her not-terribly-complicated duties, she interrupted with an objection. “I can’t count nickels.” “What?” “I can’t count nickels.” What she meant was, she couldn’t count by fives: 5-10-15-20-etc. Never learned. She can probably tell you all about Diversity, though. In case anybody comes into the shop looking for that instead of chocolate truffles.
He wrote her a short list of what she had to do. Another objection: “I can’t read that.” Turns out she can’t read cursive writing, never learned how.
What were they doing with her, all those years in school? With all those $100,000-a-year teachers and administrators? With all those tax dollars spent on her, ahem, “education”?
On second thought, I think I’d rather not hear the answer.