Patti was my teen foster daughter, and I loved being her mom because I got to fix after-school snacks, buy teacher gifts, shop for earrings and jean jackets on weekends, plan parties, and listen to the early girl rappers. I also got to help Patti with her homework, and she never seemed to have much to do. Part of this was attributable to her attitude: if she did not think she was ever going to need a subject, she would let it slide. This was happening with her schoolwork in math.
Here is a typical conversation between the two of us on the subject of math:
Me: Patti, do you have homework?
Patti: Just math.
Me: OK, let’s get on it.
Patti: That’s OK. I don’t really need to know it.
Me: Sure you do. When you’re grown it will help you know how to manage your money. It’s good for practical stuff like balancing your checkbook.
Patti: My husband will do that.
Me (loudly agitated): Your husband! You don’t want a man managing your money — ever! You need to do that for yourself!
Patti told her social worker I was funny. She laughed at what I said, and her face broke open in a wide smile when she did.
And because the interaction was funny and happy and emotional for her, I hope she remembers our conversations, too. The best person to manage Patti’s life was always going to be Patti, no matter how fine a person she might marry.
Plenty of Pretty Brainy girls will never love nor major in math, but let’s show them how it can be as asset and tool in their lives. One of our goals at Pretty Brainy is to help ’tween girls know how to make math work for them so they have the self-confidence and interest to keep doing so throughout life. Preteen clothes and ’tween fashion are the media through which we are doing our part to make this happen.
To make the math problem-solving on our Pretty Brainy girls printed tees better and better, we have updated the “crib sheets” (i.e., concise notes for quick reference) to embrace a more practical, real-world view of math. Our basic math problem tells a girl that knowing how to do math will help her become a veterinarian or aviator, a singer or musician. Math for middle- and junior-high school girls gives the girl in the Pretty Brainy tee steps for working with percents and decimals in order to spend less and keep more of her money when shopping for accessories.
This “new math” feels energetic and zingy and will be available on our World-Class Fly Girl and World Champion Babe girls printed tees approximately mid-August 2009. Look for these in our online girls clothing boutique.
Tags: 'tween self-confidence, Empowering adolescent girls, Gift ideas for teenage girls, girls and math, girls printed tees, my teen daughter, young teens