I'm not sure what planet some of my pupils are from. A year eight girl came into my lesson asking where anyone would use work on shapes from. I suggested that it might be useful in jobs such as carpentry She looked confused and said her Uncle was a carpenter and he never used maths.
My exact response was 'Well my brother's a carpenter too and he uses lots of maths, like measuring and calculating lengths and areas. So there!' (Which is true though I'm disappointed in myself for using the words 'so there' to a kid)
She looked confused and asked what a carpenter was. I explained that in simplistic terms it was woodwork.
'That's not carpentry sir! My Uncle just lays floors' God only knows what his real job is. A floor layer? I'm sure many carpenters do lay floors from time to time but not exclusively as their occupation. I think I must have missed the bit in the bible where Jesus layed the 5000 laminate floors. Besides, how does he know how much flooring he needs if never calculates the area it's going to cover? He can't even pick a number out a hat because he doesn't use any maths at all apparently. I put this to her and she said that you could just measure it with a tape measure. Oh, dear Lord...
I don't mind kids not knowing their tables or struggling to solve equations but sometimes they say things that are painfully thick. What have I been teaching her if she thinks that he carpenter Uncle just lays flooring using a tape measure? I despair.
