Letters to the Editor
-
math is more than the superficial
If she really wants to help kids learn math maybe she should look into doing it the old fashioned way, through physics, or a more modern way, through computers (and video games). Or maybe she should write a book teaching these kids parents that math is not gross and to encourage their kids in it instead of praising deviate behavior (e.g. "math is for geeks") and showering them with slutty clothes and accessories from the mall.
I guess she is trying to get girls that would normally be into shopping malls and pink frills into math? Hmmm, methinks that if the child is superficial to the point that it requires materialistic fluff to get them involved, then they lack the innate curiosity and drive regarding natural phenomena to pursue it seriously. Without that drive I fail to see how to keep them interested long term (or how they will stay interested), when they are through talking about the shopping mall and are dealing with abstract notions like ring theory.
Perhaps maybe the problem is not with girls not liking math but with their parents raising them to be superficial, materialistic little bratz who feel that paying attention to "geeky" subjects like math (or any subjects for that matter) is beneath them. It should come as no surprise that the parents attitude towards mathematics is similar (i.e. "ew, math").
Perhaps it is not the the girls that need to realize that math is "cool", but their families and society as a whole for that matter. Telling people you have a degree in math is met 9 times out of ten with, "ew, math" from adults and children alike.
-
I'd be a little more interested in this "review"
...if the reviewer had even bothered to read the book.
Instead she launches off on what the book "sounds like" to her.
Gimme a break.
-
Have you ever tried to teach math to teenagers?
I have. It's my job. And it is very very hard.
I have tried just about anything you can imagine to get teenagers to try to understand math. It doesn't matter what the method is, as long as it works.
I have even used the calculations employed to market and distribute illegal drugs to try and catch the interest of students. I wrote and perform a rap for the quadratic formula. You do whatever it takes. Especially now that state legislators are beginning to require success on standardized math tests in order to graduate from high school.
If McKellar has found a method that works to engage students with math, she has done a good thing. Worrying about whether it is a sexist method is missing the point completely. The point is getting children to study math.
-
Why is Math Sexy
Someone explain.
-
Letters To A Old Crone
I confess, I'm a little confused. If I understand correctly, Carol Lloyd is criticizing Danica McKellar for perpetuating stereotypes about women. McKeller allegedly does this by presenting intelligence in general and math in particular as compatible with shopping and fashion and other "girly" things.
It would seem to follow that Ms. Lloyd would prefer that intelligence (and math) be associated exclusively with disinterest in shopping and disdain for fashion. That sounds to me an awful lot like the stereotypical definition of a geek.
Now I'm a geek myself and the father of a girl who I very much hope will dress how she pleases and solve matrices if she sees fit. In that, I hope she grows up to be more like Danica McKellar than Carol Lloyd.
-
for girls like me
I have to say that, for all the legitimate feminist critiques of why stereotypically feminine activities have to be the way to sell math, this book and the attitudes around it would have been very helpful to me as a high school student.
I was very good at math and science when I was 13, 14 years old. By the time I was a senior in high school I had no interest in math and had flunked my one remaining math class (which, since I was stuck on the advance track of my 14 yr old self, was calculus). There were a lot of reasons why I became less focused and interested in math, many of them just your standard high school nonsense but some of it was how hostile an environment I found the hard sciences to be for a girl like me. My male friends, future computer programmers, spent every day deriding me for wearing make-up and lacy clothes and being interested in poetry. I had no female science or math teachers and while some of them were very welcoming to girls, it was only a certain group of fresh-faced athletic girls who got that kind of welcome, not a goth girl in inch-thick make-up. The overwelming message I got from friends, teachers and the culture of the hard sciences was that my interests made me vapid and stupid and not suitable for studying such a serious subject matter.
I think in the discussion of how terrible it is to always use super-feminine gimmicks to reach out to girls, is being feminine doens't make a girl stupid, despite the many pop culture message to the contrary
-
Is math sexy?
I have to disagree - math can be very sexy. I knew a Ph.D. mathematician with a dual degree from Stanford and UC Berkely. When she would discuss something technical which piqued her interest, a light shone from her eyes and her charisma could probably have been sensed by a seismometer a mile away.
I guess the bottom line is that math can inspire passion, and passion is sexy.
-
Thanks for Illustrating my Point
Someone explain.
This is the problem. People mock and ridicule what they don't understand, labeling it as "geeky" because they fail at it.
It will take more than shopping malls and puppy dogs to change society's perception of mathematics. Something like, I don't know, Americans getting off of their lazy asses and learning math so that they can effectively help teach their kids and keep up on their education instead of ridiculing it because it is was too much for them to wrap their little brains around when they were young. I imagine most dads were too busy fingering up little Sally Rottencrotch behind the bleachers when they were young instead of studying.