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Winnie Wrote a Math Book

Posted by Zonk on from the why-isn't-that-a-textbook dept.

SoyChemist writes "Hollywood is not known for providing a wealth of positive female role models. Danica McKellar, the actress that played Winnie Cooper on The Wonder Years and Elsie Snuffin on The West Wing, has written a math book for teenage girls. 'Math Doesn't Suck' is done in the style of a teen magazine. It even includes a horoscope, cute doodles of shoes and jewelry, and testimonials from attractive young career women that use math at work. It focuses on fractions and pre-algebra and uses mnemonics like calling a reciprocal a 'refliprocal', because you just take the fraction and flip it upside down. Wired interviewed McKellar about the new book and her crusade to eliminate the achievement gap between boys and girls in math courses. McKellar graduated Summa Cum Laude from UCLA. While studying there, she co-authored a proof and presented it at a conference. After she and Mayim Bialik — star of Blossom and a PhD in neuroscience — appeared in a 20/20 episode about intellectual actresses, several literary agents came knocking on her door."

8 of 638 comments (clear)

  1. Barbie disagrees by NJVil · · Score: 5, Funny

    Back in 1994, Barbie thought differently.

    Math is hard!

    1. Re:Barbie disagrees by huckamania · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Hard and doesn't suck are two different things. Unless you are talking about basic math, it generally is hard. The only class I ever dropped at Uni was a math class.* I thought I was failing but the teacher was actually grading on a curve. She said I was one of the top students. Key word being 'She'. In fact almost all of my math teachers have been women.

      It's almost degrading to women that people keep bringing this stuff up. Condescending might be the right word. Like when someone feels the need to comment about how well Colin Powell speaks. There's an unspoken 'and he's black' that is left hanging for the listener to fill in by themselves.

      I get the same feeling everytime I see a story about how some person is the first X to do Y. I get an image of them being patted on the head and someone saying, 'Gee, you're a hero to X people every where, it only took all of recorded history for you Xers to get off your fat lazy assess and do Y, but golly, you finally did, great job. Now go find some other dubious achievement you Xers haven't got around too yet and be the first in that too.'.

      Still, Winnie was hot and I always knew she had brains.

      ---
      *I didn't need the credit and wanted to keep my grade point at the honors level. CS was put in with the Natural Sciences like interior decorating, who all seemed to graduate Summa Cum Laude, which blew out the GPA for everyone else.

  2. Random bits from the book... by grub · · Score: 5, Funny


    "If the man of the house gets home from work at 5:30 and dinner takes 1.25 hours to prepare, at what time should you start making it?"

    "If your makeup costs $40 and you put it on once a day, how much does it cost per application if the makeup runs out after 70 days?"

    "If the cake recipe calls for the oven to be at 400 degree fahrenheit but the oven only has celsius....

    --
    Trolling is a art,
  3. Nice try, but... by weak* · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't think one book, even if it looks like the rest of the teen girl trash rags, is going to overcome a decades of social pressure to avoid being seen as "nerdy." What we really need is to have high schools that don't go out of their way to reinforce the perception that going to state for ****ball is the pinnacle of achievement.

    --
    The Schwartz space ain't from Spaceballs.
    1. Re:Nice try, but... by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 5, Funny

      What we really need is to have high schools that don't go out of their way to reinforce the perception that going to state for ****ball is the pinnacle of achievement.

      OK, I'm dying to know: what sport at your high school is so unspeakably vulgar that you have to censor the name?

      And are any videos online?

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
    2. Re:Nice try, but... by iknownuttin · · Score: 5, Insightful
      I don't think one book, even if it looks like the rest of the teen girl trash rags, is going to overcome a decades of social pressure to avoid being seen as "nerdy."

      I think it's more of society as a whole reducing to the lowest common denominator. It's no longer trying to strive to be educated and to better oneself, but it's now to act dumb, not try hard, talk like a moron, and become famous somehow and get the easy money. Paris Hilton is what kids strive to be: not Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein or Jack Kennedy (or whoever your favorite statesman is).

      Do kids want to dress well? No, they dress like bums. They get piercings and tattoos like bikers, strippers, drug dealers and other lowlifes. Do they try to refine their communications skills? Hell no! They talk like some ghetto uneducated slob.

      It was the same when I was growing up. The kids who dressed well and worked at school were called "preppies". Of course now, most of those "preppies" are MDs, JDs, engineers, etc.... The others, are waiting tables.

      --
      I prefer Flambe as apposed flamebait.
  4. Am I the only one peeved... by gargletheape · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...that a book aimed at increasing numeracy has horoscopes? What next? Feng Shui in geography texts?

  5. Gap? What gap? by Myrkridian42 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    When I graduated high school, the top ten students that year were girls. That was true at 3 other high school graduations I went to that year. When I graduated college, the valedictorian and salutatorian were female. I don't believe these were rare cases. So what's this "gap" they talk about? Seems to me the guys are falling behind.