Message text written by "BP - \"Callahan's Preservationeers\""
>1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.
 2. A wagon box is 2 ft. deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. wide. How many
 bushels of wheat will it hold?
  3. If a load of wheat weighs 3942 lbs., what is it worth at 50 cts.
 per bu., deducting 1050 lbs. for tare?<

As a practical matter and as an employer of people who must be able to work
proficiently with basic weights and measures every day, I could care less
if anybody knows what a "Fundamental Rule of Arithmetic" is. It may as well
be "always carry a spare battery for your calculator".

We have a minimum requirement of a high school diploma or GED for
production employees. They must also pass a production arithmetic test with
considerably easier conversions than the examples above.

Staggering numbers of H.S. grads cannot add, subtract, multiply or divide.
Ridiculously high numbers don't recognize that their answer is "a little
off" when they answer that a pallet with 60 50-lb. bags weighs 300 pounds,
instead of 3000, the most common error we see repeated. The majority have
no idea how many ounces there are in a pound (and fewer know anything about
metric units). Many a promissing candidate has been disqualified for lack
of the basic skills without which you shouldn't be able to get out of
elementary school.

So forgive me if I'm unimpressed that there is a loss of consciousness
regarding the bushel or the ton (a long ton, short ton or metric ton?). Why
do you think McDonald's cash registers have pictures of food items instead
of the words that describe them?

Mike E.