Comments on: Come On In the Water is Fine: Math http://blogs.slj.com/nonfictionmatters/2011/10/12/come-on-in-the-water-is-fine-math/ A School Library Journal Blog Sun, 05 Aug 2012 22:26:42 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.1 By: Shirley Budhos http://blogs.slj.com/nonfictionmatters/2011/10/12/come-on-in-the-water-is-fine-math/comment-page-1/#comment-34968 Shirley Budhos Thu, 13 Oct 2011 13:01:40 +0000 http://blogs.slj.com/nonfictionmatters/?p=1190#comment-34968 Ah, the myths we live by! The female math phobia is a creation of what the feminists would call "thee patriarchal system," which keeps economics, money, numbers, abstractions in the hands of males, and we, dependent females, must accede to the powerfully gifted male math mavens. It ain't so, as you mentioned, because other cultures promote facility with math for both sexes (though the future for women is not as glowing in fields involving higher math, science, etc). Now in my dotage, I often have conversations with my female contemporaries about the vagaries of handling a budget, checkbook, realistic expectations of how to live on one's income (if one knows it while married), and the reply is always the same when I ask who handles(d) the money, husband, father, of course. It's political, Marc, as the kids say today. I know that because my immigrant mother with the equivalent of a high school education could figure out compound interest on mortgages without resorting to paper-all in her head.) And, I know another who handled the business side of her husband's artistic career. Ah, the myths we live by! The female math phobia is a creation of what the feminists would call “thee patriarchal system,” which keeps economics, money, numbers, abstractions in the hands of males, and we, dependent females, must accede to the powerfully gifted male math mavens. It ain’t so, as you mentioned, because other cultures promote facility with math for both sexes (though the future for women is not as glowing in fields involving higher math, science, etc).

Now in my dotage, I often have conversations with my female contemporaries about the vagaries of handling a budget, checkbook, realistic expectations of how to live on one’s income (if one knows it while married), and the reply is always the same when I ask who handles(d) the money, husband, father, of course.

It’s political, Marc, as the kids say today. I know that because my immigrant mother with the equivalent of a high school education could figure out compound interest on mortgages without resorting to paper-all in her head.) And, I know another who handled the business side of her husband’s artistic career.

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