Wednesday, August 19, 2009

How's about those positive role models?

My friend showed me this video of Patricia Heaton at Guest Week on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire". (Skip to about 3:00.)
It isn't often that I yell at videos, but this is ridiculous. As soon as anything with numbers showed up on the screen, she completely shut down even before looking at the question. This is a grown woman freaking out about middle school math. A kid would look at the video and say, "She can't do math and got to be famous. I can do that too!" Never mind the fact that when Regis walked her through it, she was perfectly capable of solving the problem.
A defeatist attitude is lethal to learning math or any other subject. Unfortunately, mathematics often gets the short end of the stick in situations like these; that's what credit cards are for, right? It's a lot easier to get away with never doing simple, mental calculations than to get through life unable to write a cohesive paragraph. Who cares that you can't balance your own checkbook, as long as you can write thank-you notes to your generous donors. 
Does anyone know of a celebrity who likes doing math in public, and is proud of it? Who knows, maybe Patricia is just stuck in a junior high mindset and doesn't want to be called out as a nerd. 

No comments:

Post a Comment