NOTE TO READERS:  If you thought you were being linked to Marvin De Jong’s GUEST PHOTO, my apologies.  I goofed, of course.  I’ll run his photo again next week, but in the meantime, here it is:  MarvGuestPhoto.

No, that’s not the start of a classic bar joke, but there is some humor involved.  And we will get to some educational observations about basic skills.
Throughout our 47-year marriage, my wife Pat has dealt with my mathematics education career with a wide variety of opinions, and even boredom.  (Attend a math conference with me?  She’d rather have a root canal !)  It has led to some funny incidents and standing jokes.  Perhaps the funniest (now – not then!!) was when she accidentally threw away the equivalent of an early part of my dissertation!
Understand that Pat is highly intelligent, full of personality, and, before she retired, had ascended to amazing heights in the business world!  But her success has inadvertently created some of our interesting situations.
Here’s one of them: For years, when the women with whom she worked and mentored could not quickly figure 50% of something, the standing joke is that she would often get mad at ME personally, for not teaching students better!
That’s not logical – we know that – but, on one level I can feel her pain.  And, if we look at my profession, I can almost see her point.  WHY should any high school graduate not be able to instantly at least approximate 50% of something (or 15-20% for a tip!)?  And isn’t someone to blame for that?
Well, no, but the deeper question persists:  Why are some universally-taught math/arithmetic basic skills so universally forgotten not long after school days?  This phenomenon exists in other subjects too, of course (when was the Battle of Bull Run, or what’s the boiling point of water?), but it seems to be wider and more pronounced in math.  Why?
If you’ve read more than one of my blogs, you know this is not the place where I reveal The Answer to that deep mystery.  I’m not sure there is (just) one, and exploring further would take a dozen columns. (I’m already thinking.)
If, however, you want my ‘favorites’ of the ‘contributing factors’, I’m willing to at suggest at least one.  This is NOT universal, of course, but it seems to be too common, which is ‘our’ fault.
Many important educational skills, especially mathematical ones, aren’t taught as useful tools, along with why they should be in a person’s Tool Bag for Life. (How does ‘moving a decimal point two places’ to the right – or is it left? – in/of itself – sell the importance of percentages?)
Too often, these handy tools are presented A) as rote routines to be memorized in isolation, and B) in a fairly boring manner (see A).
We have space for one quick, isolated example out of many:  Take the Pythagorean Theorem.  (I know – please!  And take it far away!) For some reason, this seems to be one of the things many of us remember hearing about:  Aha!  It’s  a² + b² = c²!!  And that’s partly right, in a partial and isolated context sort of way.
But there’s so much more fascinating information here.  It’s really quite an amazing relationship, with beautiful visual effects and marvelously fascinating extensions.  Want details?  See PythagThm from two weeks ago.  As mentioned then, this incredible result should be taught with exclamation points, not sleeping pills!
We’ve only begun to scratch the surface on this one.  Mea culpa.  We’ll be back in this neighborhood soon.  In the meantime, if you’re near Pat and need to take 50% of something, please get it right!  My well-being depends on it!