While not squarely in the typical ELS wheelhouse, the following excerpt just stopped me in my tracks.
"In her excellent book, Race to the Top, the journalist Elizabeth Green tells a story of a new hamburger that the A&W Restaurant chain introduced to the masses. Weighing 1/3 of a pound, it was meant to compete with McDonald’s quarter-pounder and was priced comparably. But the 'Third Pounder' failed miserably. Consultants were mystified until they realized many A&W customers believed that they were paying the same for less meat than they got at McDonald’s. Why? Because four is bigger than three, so wouldn’t ¼ be more than 1/3?"
To be sure, this degree of innumeracy is not typically present in law school classrooms (or I certainly hope not). That said, a general ambivalence (at best) or aversion (at worst) towards all things quantitative shapes the stream of students who self-select into law schools.
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