Friday, April 15, 2011

A to Z Challenge

A Tribute to the letter  M

A couple of weeks ago, my brother told me that his daughter is planning to be a CPA. I could hear the pride in his voice. His daughter was going to follow the foot steps of her grandfather. "I am happy for her " I said.
"Who would have thought," he said. " I mean being a girl, you would think that she would be interested in liberal arts and stuff." He was just getting carried away.
"You would have thought that," I said "Not me." Then I quickly realized that this can unnecessarily take away my niece's thunder, so I said "Give her my love and congratulate her, I will give her a call too." I did not argue with my brother for just assuming that because his child is a girl, she would not be good in Math. My daughter told me how Danica McKellar  is so good in math that she actually wrote books on the subject.This was such a great news for me. Such a dainty little girl a math wiz? Sure enough. Her books are in the list of New York Times Best Sellers for Kids books.
She happens to be the author of Math doesn't suck, Kiss my Math, and Hot X Algebra Exposed.  Who would have thought - oops, I was just about to make the same mistake that my brother made, assuming that girls are not good in math. She is so good that she and another of her fellow students along with their professor Lincoln Chayes wrote a theorem - the Chayes-McKellar-Winn Theorem (Winn for Brady Winn not Winnie Cooper).
She said that she wrote those books to help girls survive math without losing your mind or breaking nails. She said that she wrote Math doesn't suck for junior high girls, to show them that math is accessible and relevant and even little glamorous. It was to counteract the damaging social message telling young girls that math and science aren't for girls.

8 comments:

Hold my hand: a social worker's blog said...

The thought that math is not for girls has definitely be influenced by society/culture. I'm glad about the evolution on such a concept.

Great post!

Doris

Belle said...

We all have different talents. I am terrible at math, but I know many women have a gift for it. Those books on math sound really wonderful!

yaya said...

I got a bit behind in reading your posts. I enjoyed all of the challenges you've written about. The poems are really good too! I smiled when I read this one on math...I suck at math! It has haunted me all my life and even made me think I was too stupid for college. (but I went anyway and did fine!) I'm still not good at it, but I have realized that maybe it wasn't me, but teachers who assumed I couldn't learn it because I was just a girl anyway and wouldn't need it. Thankfully, I can add and subtract and not over draw the bank account! Haha!

Cloudia said...

cool.

congrats!




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Vanilla Mama said...

I wish - I really wish that I was good in Math! I am so not good at Math. I am glad that the view is changing for girls in this field, and I wish I could further that - I will have to keep calculating with words.

Snakesmom said...

Girls can do anything they put their minds too, math included. :) Great post!

NormalToEatPB said...

Personally I suck at math but I don't think its because I'm a girl :-D

Hope said...

wonderful write up!
enjoying your posts as we sail along the alphabet! great M word!