Comments on: This Qualifies as Stupid

By: Colleen

Colleen — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 18:34:50 +0000

Travis later clarified that Verizon refunded this guy the money. But there were some other people who realized after many bills that they were being charged more than they thought (so $0.002 instead of 0.002c) and apparently the contract specified $ but the online advertisements said cents. Those were the law suits that Verizon won. But then when I asked him if he was sure he said “That’s what I remember, but I’m not sure.” I can’t find anything either…

By: Amy

Amy — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 01:00:14 +0000

Kim – Yes, and the math educators will see this and say, “See, we need more ‘real life’ problems and instruction about what cents and dollars are, and less focus on things like place value, since that wasn’t the issue here.”

I actually had a similar, although not nearly as bad, experience with a customer service person who needed to pull out a calculator for some incredibly simple operation, which I can’t remember now. At Disneyworld, my husband dealt with somebody behind the counter who could not add 60 and 80, or something simple like that.

Do you teach your kids metric and imperial units? I’d never thought about that issue before until I noticed what you said about finding the right version of Singapore Math.

LB: HA! That’s funny. Million, billion, trillion…they all just mean “a lot” don’t they?

Colleen: I couldn’t find anything about a lawsuit through a quick google search, but I doubt that Verizon would win on the math merits. We’re not that far gone…yet.

By: Kim

Kim — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 00:25:03 +0000

This is a great representation of why math education today makes me angry.

By: LB

LB — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 22:46:53 +0000

Wow.

A couple of decimal places here, a trillion there. What’s the difference?

After I have my ten year-old explain it to the Verizon people, maybe I’ll see if she can spend some time with Congress.

When did money last have actual value?

By: Colleen

Colleen — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 18:26:44 +0000

OMG. This makes me mad. Because then Travis just told me that people have taken this to court and VERIZON wins! What possible argument could anyone make that Verizon was correct?!?!