Decatur High School students sat in on geometry class that Danica McKellar taught on April 19.
McKellar, known most notably for her role as Winnie Cooper on the television series The Wonder Years, taught the class as part of a partnership with the DeVry University HerWorld program.
Many people may not know that McKellar attended UCLA and studied mathematics, graduating at the top of her class. She has continued acting but now also focuses on her writing career.
“My whole goal is to show girls that math is for them and I make the books look girly and fun—they look more like magazines than math books—so that way girls don’t feel that they’re a sidebar or an afterthought,” McKellar said.
McKellar’s books, Math Doesn’t Suck: How to Survive Middle School Math Without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail Kiss My Math: Showing Pre-Algebra Who’s Boss; and Hot X: Algebra Exposed , focus on getting young girls from middle to early high school interested in math.
“Math is a tool; it empowers you to be a problem solver, to believe in yourself and overcome challenges,” McKellar said.
Growing up, McKellar said she found herself feeling a little empty because people would only recognize her as Winnie Cooper, the character she played on television. She began to wonder about who she would be if she had never been on The Wonder Years
“Pursuing math gave me something, a gift of confidence, and I felt really good about myself,” McKellar said. Most of the math teachers at UCLA recognized her as an exceptional math student and she said that this was the first time in her life that she had received recognition for being something other than a child star.
McKellar then began to realize that she didn’t have to rely on people recognizing her as Winnie Cooper for her to feel good about herself.
“That’s why you see a lot of child stars not doing so well, because they are so dependent on that other person and they don’t know who they are outside of that…I didn’t know what my value was until I became a math major, “McKellar said.
McKellar was invited to the school because a group of girls at Decatur High had participated in a science competition with other high school girls from throughout the country as part of the HerWorld program.
“Decatur High School’s team designed a toothbrush with a little microchip in it that could [recognize]the amount of gingivitis and plaque…. and Decatur High won and with that they earned the right to have Danica teach, “Chris Chavez , Atlanta metro president of DeVry University said.
Chavez said that the mission of the HerWorld program is to show young girls the possibilities and career opportunities that exist in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.
To read the full article written by Daniel Beauregard and featured in The Champion Free Press, please clickhereand go to page 18A.
