Yes, Monday nights are wacky!
- By Ann Hamblin
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- 23 Aug, 2017
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According to Dictionary.com, "wacky" may have originated as British slang in the late 1800s, possibly resulting from a whack or blow on the head, one too many times. From that initial blow to the head, other meanings have been applied to "wacky," meanings such as preposterous, crazy, loony, absurd, or odd.
While attending school in North Carolina one summer, I took a study break to visit the locals. When I saw the above sign at a local ice cream parlor, I thought how enjoyable a banana-nut ice cream cone would be. And who could beat the price? So I pulled into a parking place, entered the ice cream parlor, ordered my cone, and gave her a quarter. As I stood awaiting my change, she looked at me as if I were the wacky one.
Finally, I said, "Do you owe me some change? I gave you a quarter, and your sign states that on Monday nights, ice cream is three cents." To correct my ignorance, she took me to the window to show me the price. When I called her attention to the decimal in the 0.25₵, she became so confused by my basic math explanation that her ice cream was actually being advertised for about three cents on Mondays, she finally told me I could just have the cone "free."
Of course, I couldn't do that, and so I handed her the quarter and told her to keep the change. I started to tell her that I had given her a generous tip on a three-cent cone. In fact, I had actually given her a 10,000% tip! But at this point, she was tired of wacky Monday; in her mind, she knew who the real wacko was! In a commanding voice, she interrupted me with, "Next."
Back to my basic premise, higher levels of learning can not be mastered unless our basic foundation is solid. Understanding fractions, decimals, and percentages is an essential component needed in real life.
Not knowing the value of our money is the true definition of wacky, whether as a merchant or a consumer.
Check out how to build that strong foundation needed for higher levels of learning at www.stepupwithann.com/subjects .
While attending school in North Carolina one summer, I took a study break to visit the locals. When I saw the above sign at a local ice cream parlor, I thought how enjoyable a banana-nut ice cream cone would be. And who could beat the price? So I pulled into a parking place, entered the ice cream parlor, ordered my cone, and gave her a quarter. As I stood awaiting my change, she looked at me as if I were the wacky one.
Finally, I said, "Do you owe me some change? I gave you a quarter, and your sign states that on Monday nights, ice cream is three cents." To correct my ignorance, she took me to the window to show me the price. When I called her attention to the decimal in the 0.25₵, she became so confused by my basic math explanation that her ice cream was actually being advertised for about three cents on Mondays, she finally told me I could just have the cone "free."
Of course, I couldn't do that, and so I handed her the quarter and told her to keep the change. I started to tell her that I had given her a generous tip on a three-cent cone. In fact, I had actually given her a 10,000% tip! But at this point, she was tired of wacky Monday; in her mind, she knew who the real wacko was! In a commanding voice, she interrupted me with, "Next."
Back to my basic premise, higher levels of learning can not be mastered unless our basic foundation is solid. Understanding fractions, decimals, and percentages is an essential component needed in real life.
Not knowing the value of our money is the true definition of wacky, whether as a merchant or a consumer.
Check out how to build that strong foundation needed for higher levels of learning at www.stepupwithann.com/subjects .
Every time I begin teaching a grammar lesson, my students tell me that they will never use “this stuff.” In response to their immediate judgment on learning grammar, I attempt to show them that grammar is essential to “real life” communication. Without grammar, confusion would rule.
Our last post looked at our grammar skills by using an 1895 eighth-grade graduation exam that was taken from an original document on file at the Smoky Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina, Kansas.
At what point in one’s educational experience does the responsibility for learning shift from the teacher to the learner? Or does it?