The Hidden Value of the Village Shop: Why Math(s) is Easier to Learn in England

After school at the Village Shop (photo by Michael)

On Fridays after school, Anna likes to stop by the Village Shop to buy penny sweets.  I usually give her 20 pence and say she can pick whatever she likes for up to 20p for sharing with Michael and Grandparents.  The candies are 1p, 2p, 5p and 10p.  Because there isn't tax to add at the end, the prices are as written.  I have found that Anna can now very easily add up the amounts as she puts sweets in her little plastic basket.  She will occasionally put something back and grab another item (something I discourage but do see this a common occurrence among little fingers in the shop).  When she does this, the subtraction comes into play.  I was really surprised seeing Anna do all of this in her head.  So far, she is always correct.  The nice lady at the counter will add up her little basket, smile and say "Well done!" and slide the treats into a tiny bag, sometimes white and sometimes striped.

We don't have shops like this in America that I can think of.  The sweets at the Village Shop are simply priced (rather than weighed or taxed) and they are laid out at child level for their own choosing and counting.  There are lots of sweets too and very easy to grab.  There are no tongs; you use your fingers.  No one gets up in arms about that (or maybe they just don't shop there).  I have never seen a child get rambunctious or just take fist fulls of candy there.  Perhaps it does happen but the mannerly-ness of the society probably wards against it.

On a side note, I've noticed that while American stores and restaurants are very big on "sneeze guards" and separate tongs for separate items, that really isn't the case here.  The health and safety laws are probably different.  When John and I went to a big cineplex, they had a self-serve pick-a-mix candy and snacks area.  Though there were 30 things you could choose from, there were only a few tongs/scoops for all of them.  If you have allergies, I guess you just learn to never eat any of those snacks.  That would be the sensible thing to do.