This is a struggle I can relate to:
Perez Hilton thinks that hot chicks can’t do math. I have taught math to children of a variety of ages. It is difficult to convince young women in our society that they can do math. Young women often lack self-confidence about mathematics. Many of them think that “only the ugly, unpopular girls” do math. One high school student once told me that she didn’t want to go to a summer math program because if she did “everyone will think I’m uncool.”
See this post for the big picture and the gory details.
I can tell you that there was a lot of stuff going on in my household this year regarding math, and anti-math socialization. Just so you know, Julia got a lot of helpful support in the nitty gritty of algebra from the household math expert, which of course is Amanda.
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“Perez Hilton thinks that hot chicks can’t do math.”
Eh? Natalie Portman comes to mind…
Winnie Cooper comes to mind, too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danica_McKellar
I would call your attention to
http://www.maa.org/devlin/LockhartsLament.pdf
Did you just call your wife ugly and unpopular? Geez Greg. Bad form.
Danica McKellar has, in fact, written book on the subject of math and they are aimed toward pre-teen and teen girls. If you’re interested, they’re called ‘Math Doesn’t Suck’ and ‘Kiss My Math.’
My kid sister is good at math. Which irritates me because I can’t do math at all. *dyscalculia probably (I fit the symptoms to a tee* but to my dismay because of her social network, science is now uncool. Grr.
I am the math tutor in our house, too. My husband hated it as a child and still hates it. He manages, though, to use it even in his job (which is art direction).