WINNEMUCCA -I have been encouraged to buy products made in the USA. I have nothing against imports but I care deeply about American jobs. I started my Christmas shopping at a big store in Reno. Searching the kitchen department, I discovered only products made in China. On to bed, bath and miscellaneous ... Every product made in China. An occasional Indonesia or India would have been a pleasant surprise, but no! All made in China.
Shocked I tried two local stores. Feeling confident that I would find Made in USA products, the first store yielded none. At the second seeking camping equipment, I felt safe that Coleman would match my needs. Guess what? Made in China. Every camping item, dog item, shoe and slipper were not from this country. Clothing provided other nations: Bangladesh and Vietnam. I envisioned the working conditions in these places as I examined the hefty prices and left them hanging. I did spot socks with horses on them made in the USA. If nothing else, this shopping was cheap.
Online at home, I clicked several companies that claimed U.S. products. Reading through their American made adulations, I eventually learned that most items I wanted were either "imported" or made in China. I did find a train set for my great nephew, sheets and a sleeping bag for family and a roasting pan but these required several hours of searching. And while they will arrive quickly, all use shipping other than the U.S. post office, another enterprise I am trying to save!
I challenge you and your children to study labels, to research countries from which we buy our products and how those countries feel about us plus how they treat their workers, and then to discuss the price difference. Cheaper prices do not usually denote homegrown products, however, if we want our workers to earn living wages we must enter the "catch 22" of the pocketbook.
If you are looking for a family entrepreneurial option, how about opening a Made Only in the USA (with no hidden secrets) shop? I would love to venture into an athletic shoe and apparel store of national products. While most New Balance shoes are made here, they do not suit my particular feet and I cannot wear them without pain (plus they feel heavily flimsy compared to my favorites). We have wonderful talent here, shouldn't we be able to design excellent running gear? Knowing that my $100+ shoes were made for $1 in a foreign country is disheartening.
A mathematical game for the holidays includes fractions and cooking. Double this recipe; triple the next, cut the third in half. You are practicing computation skills while preparing a delightful treat. For those who are closer to my vintage, when we learned division of fractions we simply "inverted and multiplied." No discussion, no drawings, no in-depth study. A few years ago I wrote about dividing fractions using illustrations to show how answers are larger than the original numbers or amount (when commonly dividing produces less). So ½ divided by ¾ equals 4/6 that reduces to 2/3 (which is greater than ½ - this is easier to explain live than through text!).
My great niece Lauryn taught me a new trick. Forget inversion. Simply find the common denominator, then stack the first numerator on top of the second and you have your answer. Thus ½ becomes 2/4 divided by ¾ equals 2/3 (using the numerators for my answer). Try something tougher: 7/9 divided by 12/27. The common denominator is 27 so we have 21/27 divided by 12/27 equals 21/12 (stacked numerators) or 1 3/4. With this method I do need to understand "common denominator" but the numbers that I then deal with are much more manageable than 7 times 27 or 9 times 12 and then a necessary reducing of terms.
What I do not understand - yet - is why it works. Fortunately Lauryn has a sixth-grade teacher who loves math and showing students new ways of thinking and doing. That is what we truly want to develop - creative, innovative thinkers. If you can solve a math problem one way, what are three other ways to solve the same problem. Of these, which is the most efficient? Learning math coupled with curiosity result in students who know they can tackle problems from many angles. So if the Pythagorean Theory eludes your mind (or any other algorithm), you can still manipulate numbers to find an answer.
Gini Cunningham's education column appears the third Tuesday of each month in the Humboldt Sun. She can be reached via e-mail: gini.cunningham@sbcglobal.net.
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