Advocacy: A discouraging conversation

[Kevin Brown]

> Along the same lines, I'll bet that 50% of the twenty-somethings out 
> can't take the dimensions of a room and the sq. footage a gallon of 
> paint will cover and figure out how many gallons of paint are needed to 
> paint a room. (10-25% will start by multiplying (length x width x 
> height) AAAaaarrrgggghhhhh!!!

I like to play RPGs as a good way to spend some free time and I've 
noticed that nearly a third or more of the players I've gamed with can't 
seem to do basic addition or subtraction without a calculator.  I'm 
guessing it is just so hard to expect someone to be able to do 17 + 7...