we hate math

Majority?
I'd say they hate semantics too.

Oh boy, that made me laugh so much I have tears in my eyes. Tears also for the poor soul who goofed!

Personally, as a woman who did very well in my physics bachelor's degree (and is very good at math), I grumble at the implied stereotyping in that reference.

When I read the headline, my first thought was, "that's unusually suble and ironic humour for a paper." You mean that journalist wasn't being funny? Cripes.

Denise Lehtinen wrote:Personally, as a woman who did very well in my physics bachelor's degree (and is very good at math), I grumble at the implied stereotyping in that reference.

I think that is merely statistics, not stereotyping. And my daughter has a Phd in physics. It isn't saying women can't do math, it is saying they hate it. Why is perhaps another issue - perhaps cultural?

But we don't ALL hate maths (but then I'm not American so maybe I should keep outta this??). I LOVE maths - one of my strong points. In fact, when it comes to doing maths things with my 3 home-educated boys my husband always says "Oh that's Mummy's specialist subject - ask her". Currently doing trigonometry with my 8 year old - he likes Pi !! The article could have just stopped short of that comma and all would have been well in woman-land.

I do not do well with most math as a formula. But...I get geometry when applied to real life design. In fact I am fascinated with fractals when used as a basis for design! However...algebra I think I can usually live without. I am sure I do it all the time in my head, but to sit there and work out someone else's formulas on paper...no thanks.

Paul indulges in some very arbitrary loosey goosey math. Here's an example of what he said in a thread on recycling.

" reuse is 20 times better than recycle.

reduce is 20 times better than reuse.

Therefore, reduce is 400 times better than recycle."

Dale Hodgins wrote:Paul indulges in some very arbitrary loosey goosey math. Here's an example of what he said in a thread on recycling.

" reuse is 20 times better than recycle.

reduce is 20 times better than reuse.

Therefore, reduce is 400 times better than recycle."

Seems good to me - 20 x 20 was 400 last time I checked. But what would I know, being only a woman...

Fred Morgan wrote:

Denise Lehtinen wrote:Personally, as a woman who did very well in my physics bachelor's degree (and is very good at math), I grumble at the implied stereotyping in that reference.

I think that is merely statistics, not stereotyping. And my daughter has a Phd in physics. It isn't saying women can't do math, it is saying they hate it. Why is perhaps another issue - perhaps cultural?

Has that daughter ever spoken to you about those people who Look at her Like she is a MARTIAN when she tells them she has done so well in physics? I had that experience sometimes when I was a physics major. It is okay to be politely surprised -- we who stray off the beaten path take some pride in that deviance. (As part of my husband's search for treatment of his Lyme disease we visited a dentist in Maryland who happened to be a black man. I could tell from his reaction to my polite surprise that he had run into many of the same experiences as I have.)

I hate generalizations. One person in a category of people is a certain way and then you deduce everyone is going to be that very same way.

If the article said, "especially many women", then I would be okay with it. It does seem to be true that disproportionately many women don't like math -- some on purpose because they don't want to be deemed unfeminine. But as it is worded, it lumps all women into a type (in my view), and I hate that.

One of the moral principles I have been developing lately is the one where everybody is an individual. Nobody gets to be locked into a predetermined stereotype of them. (If after that they show some views in common with their type, well that is okay... that is their choice.)

This thread has gone seriously astray. But on a similar but different note, in the small town where I grew up the only people of non-european decent worked at the hospital or at the hydro plant.

American television gave us negative stereotypes that didn't exist for me when I was young.