Wednesday, August 1, 2007

So it was OK for us to have those fantasies about Winnie Cooper?

Remember Winnie Cooper from The Wonder Years? Who knew she's about the same age as us here in the Gang? At age 32, Danica McKellar is set to debut a book she wrote to encourage young girls to enjoy math. From The Washington Post:

"When girls see the antics of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, they think that being fun and glamorous also means being dumb and irresponsible," the 32-year-old McKellar told Newsweek for editions to hit newsstands Monday.

"But I want to show them that being smart is cool," she said. "Being good at math is cool. And not only that, it can help them get what they want out of life."

Apparently, she knows a thing or two about mathematics--she graduated summa cum laude from UCLA with a degree in the subject.

I guess it's pretty neat that she's trying to get girls to think being brainy is cool. Personally, I think it's sexy. Unfortunately, I don't think one could use the same approach with boys to make math interesting. Well, unless Winnie came out with a math book with her teaching algebra in this (slightly NSFW--click at your own risk). It would sure beat our junior high math teachers--"Pack 'em up, stack 'em up, put 'em in a pile..."

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is it a book or a magazine? The picture says magazine, but the blog says book. Anyway, from my experience with teaching middle-school math. It was the guys that needed more encouraging than the girls, but maybe that was because I was the hotty guy teacher.

Dutch said...

No doubt that she is beautiful, but she has such a youthful face it's a little creepy. That Maxim picture (I'm guessing) makes me feel like a pedophile.

Swany said...

Exactly why I had to point out she's our age, to eliminate that creepy feeling.