[hexniks]

Does it matter? We were never taught to deal with sums that vague. Plus, it's never going to crop up in reality because your always going to know to approach a real world equation.

There is absolutely nothing vague about it. About it never cropping, I suppose it depends on what you choose to do after school, I can see it never being a problem for a cook for example. However high school should prepare students to pursue any career path and it baffles me that people start a degree in physics, mathematics or IT with such fundamentally lacking algebra skills.