Patrica Heaton Math

[NEOWatcher]

I'm not sure if this is funny or sad.
Being that it's a celebrity, I thought it might make a good conversation.

To quote a friend: “The stupid! It burns!” (http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2009/08/20/are-you-smarter-than-a-second-grader/)
Gee; it seems like I just heard that in the last couple of days here.

Anyway, the question:

“If a Euro is worth $1.50, five Euros is worth what?”

Her choices were (a) thirty quarters, (b) fifty dimes, (c) seventy nickels, or (d) ninety pennies.

Sorry Fazor, she said "I went to Ohio State, so I don't know that much".

Does she call someone who's good at math? No; she calls someone who's european because it's a Euro question.

[matthewota]

I am trying to find the etymology of that phrase "The Stupid! It Burns!" to no avail.

[HenrikOlsen]

And how would a European be expected to know how much nickles and dimes are worth? Luckily it's (a) so that's not a problem.

I suspect she had a teacher who believed in the, unfortunately self-fulfilling, "girls can't learn math" myth, which results in girls being rewarded for acting dumber than they really are with much wasted potential as a result.

[TheOncomingStorm]

I am trying to find the etymology of that phrase "The Stupid! It Burns!" to no avail.
It us from this cartoon.
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/09/28/useful-drawing/

[jrkeller]

I suspect she had a teacher who believed in the, unfortunately self-fulfilling, "girls can't learn math" myth, which results in girls being rewarded for acting dumber than they really are with much wasted potential as a result.

And this is based on what?

or

Maybe she's bad at math. As a math tutor I've met plenty of people who are bad at math.

or

Maybe its been decades since she's done any real math and her accountants/handlers do it all for her. She is a fairly wealthy acctress.

or

Maybe she has Dyscalculia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyscalculia) which affects about 5% of the population.

or

maybe she's just nervous.

[matthewota]

When I was in high school in the early 1970s, there was no social stigma for girls that were good at math. I venture to say that at that time in my school, more girls were good at math than boys.

[novaderrik]

in school, i was great at math. algebra and geometry were easy for me. but my attitude and general apathy towards every other subject (well, more towards the people teaching them) kept me out of the advanced math classes.
that was in the late 80's/early 90's.
ask me to do most of that stuff now, and i won't know where to start.

[publius]

Well, well, looks like Deborah can't balance the checkbook either. :lol:

For those not familiar with the sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond", Heaton played Ray's long suffering wife Deborah. Ray and his family drove her crazy, especiall her mother-in-law. Like most sitcoms, the husband is always an irresponsible man-child idiot, and that was the character of Ray. Deborah was always getting on him to help her do more stuff and one episode concerned the checkbook. She made him balance the checkbook. He couldn't do it and just made figures up and got in to some mess having to quickly get money in the bank before some check Deborah wrote bounced.

Then there was the IQ test episode where they led Deborah to believe that Ray's IQ was actually higher than hers. She went to pieces at the thought.

-Richard

[matthewota]

You mean the woman in the game show played the wife in the sitcom? I am so ignorant of television because I rarely watch it.

It is ironic that the character that she played knew more math than the actress.

[publius]

Yes, and it was "Debra" not Deborah, turns out. Debra Barone was the character and that was Ms. Heaton's claim to fame.


-Richard

[jrkeller]

When I was in high school in the early 1970s, there was no social stigma for girls that were good at math. I venture to say that at that time in my school, more girls were good at math than boys.

The same was true for me. I went to high school from 1975-1979. I would say that our best math student was a girl.

[slang]

[in] "Everybody Loves Raymond", Heaton played Ray's long suffering wife [Debra].

Aaah.. Thanks! Didn't recognize the name, nor clicked the link.. That does make it extra funny. Serves Mrs. Knowitall right! ;)

[Tog]

The same was true for me. I went to high school from 1975-1979. I would say that our best math student was a girl.

Over on the City of Heroes boards, there is a poster that has made a huge reputation for herself by use of her math skills. It's actually been admitted to the devs that there have been times they thought something was working perfectly, until she told them it wasn't. When they checked it, she was right.

I don't know if she's ever actually given her age, but I have a strong belief she's in her late 30's; so high school in the late 80s.

Speaking of High school in the late 80s, I was one of 14 people in my AP Chem class. Of those in the class with me, four were female (one a varsity cheerleader-take that stereotype), and I was the only person in the class that was not in calculus, except the one junior who would take it the following year.

There was one problem we had to do that I ended up figuring out using 3D geometry and a origami paper cube, but had to get one of them to help me do the basic algebra.

[jrkeller]

Speaking of High school in the late 80s, I was one of 14 people in my AP Chem class. Of those in the class with me, four were female (one a varsity cheerleader-take that stereotype),

One girl in high school was very similar. Was on the pom-pom squard (dance team for marching band), home coming queen, superstar tennis player, took Pre-calc and all round good person. She even treated the nerds good. She ended up becoming a VP at IBM.

[Trebuchet]

On a related note: I was was forced to watch "Millionaire" at my folks' house a couple of nights ago. A low-value question was: How many feet is the fifty-yard line of a football field from the goal line? A - fifty B - 150 C - something else D - something else. The contestant chose "A" without hesitation. Meredith looked a bit non-plussed.

[mugaliens]

Self-demeaning behavior appears to be a growing trend among the youth. When I was in my twenties and were were asked questions at work, we were expected to know it. These days questions are often met with a chuckling, "Oh, I don't have the answer to that one" response.

That's unacceptable, in my book, but what do you do when all of the 20-somethings share similar reactions?