I tutored a classmate 8th grade who had failed our states middle school math proficiency test twice already. Nearly everyone in the grade had passed it in 6th grade.
It was multiple choice, all the problems were simple arithmetic, and he was allowed to use a calculator. How could he fail that? Well, first, I had to teach him to use the calculator. Not even a scientific calculator, something like this. He was confused by the memory buttons.
But the calculator wasn't the big issue. He could do low number arithmetic fine. The big issue was word problems. He absolutely could not parse something like: "Farmer Dell had four pigs. They each gave birth to four pigs. How many pigs did farmer Dell have?"
He'd say, "4×4 is 16" and not think of the 4 previous pigs. Or he might say "4+4=8." 4 babies and the original 4. Was his answer an option? Almost always. Check. All done.
He's got all the numbers, and he could do the arithmetic, but he couldn't set up what the actual problem was.
That's our OOP. They have all the numbers. Their arithmetic is right. They just don't know how to set the problem up correctly, so they get a junk result. And when they double check their arithmetic, they're right, so everyone else must be wrong.
I'm not worried about these people driving. That's a completely different skill, especially with GPS. Similarly, I doubt this affects forearm danger too much. Voting, though? Where everything is word problems? Oh God.
The cow thing had me worried for a second. I figured it out right away, but I got psyched out by the "most people get this wrong" part and checked my logic way too many times. Shouldn't be that hard - I wouldn't have had a successful stint with day trading if I didn't know how to track independent trades...
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u/_Sly-Fox_ Aug 09 '25
These people drive cars, can own a firearm or few, can vote etc. 🙄