Originally Posted by
Horton Brasses
One of our mistakes in transitioning to metric is the way it's taught. I spent a lot of time in elementary school sorting out the more obscure metric dimensions like decimeter, centiliter, deciliter, kiloliter, and the ever useful dekagram. This is silly and confusing-yes it all makes sense to an adult brain-you just need to learn the prefixes but teachers didn't understand it or teach it well.
Countries that use the metric system use cm, mm, meter, km, gram, and kg. That's it unless you are dealing with hectares for area. Decimeter, and all the rest are pointless and just add to the chaos.