lilknottygirl said:
i see nothing wrong w/relating math to real life. i would have loved to have had something like this in middle school. my math teachers were incapable of applying math concepts to anything i might've done in my real life, thus i was never able to grasp it. lots of girls, including myself, like to cook and buy shoes. perhaps if someone had used those examples when trying to teach me math, i would've had a better understanding and wouldn't be taking pre-algebra at age 25- aaarrrggghhh

While I agree with this, I really wonder how much the book does that. For example, there's a really funny Onion article about a teacher who used "moon pies" in all of the math examples, followed by a response from one of the students saying that the kids didn't even know what a moon pie was, so treated it as a generic unit.

She's certainly established that she's damn good at math, but without seeing the book, I have to wonder how much she makes math relevant (cooking examples are probably good for that), and how much she just slaps "tube of lipstick" in as a generic unit. If it's a lot of the later, I'm not sure how much it's going to help anyone learn.

A teacher would have caught my attention more in high school if they had used No-Doz, Snickers, and Pot for units.

If Damien buys one pound of pot and wishes to break it down into 1oz increments for sale, how many baggies will he have?

If Crystal smokes 1oz of pot, and has a 2.07 oz Snickers bar and splits it 2 ways with her friends, how many ounces of Snickers will each person get?

apesamongus

Atlanta, GA

July 2002

AUG 09, 2007 09:40 AM

I've been thinking, and someone should write a similar book for boys and English class. I'd have loved a book that explained how reading Dylan Thomas was somehow relevant to my life.

unfiltrator

San Francisco, CA

April 2004

AUG 09, 2007 10:00 AM

juniper said:
When I was in middle school I was obsessed with death and running away.
What kind of math book would they write for creepy goth chicks?
"A 130 pound girl jumps off a bridge. After hitting the water below and perishing, her bodies absorbs 10% of it's body weight. How much does it then weigh?"

ha ha Genius!

juniper

Portland, OR

October 2002

AUG 09, 2007 07:29 PM

publicAnemone said:

juniper said:
stuff

ha ha Genius!

Thank you.
But oh man am I cringing while I see all of the punctuation errors I made!

Vidalia

SUICIDEGIRL

USA

AUG 11, 2007 02:44 AM

DhD_PillowPants said:
[A teacher would have caught my attention more in high school if they had used No-Doz, Snickers, and Pot for units.

If Damien buys one pound of pot and wishes to break it down into 1oz increments for sale, how many baggies will he have?

If Crystal smokes 1oz of pot, and has a 2.07 oz Snickers bar and splits it 2 ways with her friends, how many ounces of Snickers will each person get?

I really think that this is the only reason some of my friends understand fractions.
But I can't seem to get them to understand that a half-eight= one sixteenth.

LadyGrey88

Palm Desert, CA

August 2007

AUG 11, 2007 02:47 AM

PointBlank said:

_DictionaryGirl_ said:

WN: You don't think that there are so many mentions of expensive shoes and expensive purses that it's encouraging them to be materialistic?

McKellar: You think my book is going to make them more materialistic than they are already being trained to be? You have a lot (to learn). You're putting my book on quite a pedestal.

God, I hate this sort of thinking. Okay, your book is important enough to help defeat the conventional teenage wisdom that "Math sucks," but god forbid you try to combat materialism instead of shrugging your shoulders and saying "Too hard. Doesn't matter anyway."

I don't think that's the point. I also don't think that's the way we should look at it. No offense to the few girls reading this who are highly intellectual as well as fashionable, but many of the girls I knew in middle school who were obsessing over handbags and lipstick and boys were not the ones aceing their geometry tests. Gellar is targeting an audience. The point of the book is to teach these girls how to do math, not to completely change their outlook on materialism or life in general. Ever think that since the target audience is only interested in these types of things that this may be the best way to reach them?

And who ever said making cookies reinforced gender roles? Ever think that girls reading the book may possibly *GASP* LIKE COOKIES??? Naw. That's crazy.

For the girls who, say happen to be tomboys and have trouble in math, they can, I dunno, buy another book???

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DhD_No_Pants

Katy, TX

May 2006

AUG 09, 2007 06:59 AM