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'Wonder Woman's' director tweeted the best thank-you note from a kindergarten teacher.

'Wonder Woman's' director tweeted the best thank-you note from a kindergarten teacher.

"Wonder Woman" is shattering box office records, but the effect the movie is having on one kindergarten class might be an even bigger victory.

Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images.

On Sunday, "Wonder Woman" director Patty Jenkins tweeted a note her producer received from an elementary school teacher detailing 11 ways the movie has already created a new culture in the classroom.

It. Is. Glorious.

Some of the highlights include:

  • "On Monday, a boy who was obsessed with Iron Man told me he had asked his parents for a new Wonder Woman lunchbox."
  • "A little girl said 'When I grow up I want to speak hundreds of languages like Diana.'"
  • "Seven girls playing together during recess ... [said] that since they all wanted to be Wonder Woman, they had agreed to be Amazons and not fight but work together to defeat evil."
  • "On Wednesday, a girl came with a printed list of every single female superhero and her powers, to avoid any trouble when deciding roles at recess."
  • "A boy threw his candy wrapping [on] the floor and a 5-year-old girl screamed, 'DON'T POLLUTE YOU IDIOT, THAT IS WHY THERE ARE NO MEN IN TEMYSCIRA.'"

And this is just from one kindergarten classroom.

Predictably, people on Twitter were pretty charmed and inspired by the kindergarten classroom's adoration of the movie.

The note put many in touch with their inner superhero-loving child.

Others confirmed that the movie has been a smash — with children of all genders.

"Wonder Woman" gave the kindergarten girls a crash course in collaborative leadership — and that's not an accident.

While some studies have shown that superhero movies increase aggression among children, other experts have found that creative superhero play can teach kids to handle adversity without resorting to violence as well as critical negotiation skills.

Meanwhile, the film teaches boys a critical lesson about empathy.

Various studies have shown that consuming media that encourages viewers to identify with members of groups unlike themselves can lead viewers to develop empathy for those groups.

The movie's incredible symbolic value is becoming clear — and not to just young children.

Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images.

Earlier this month, the Legion of Women Writers launched a fundraising campaign to send 70 high school-age girls to see the film.

In May, Austin's Alamo Drafthouse announced it would be holding women-only screenings of "Wonder Woman," and after backlash — and backlash to the backlash that was joined by Austin's mayor, among others — they decided to expand the screenings nationwide.

"Wonder Woman" is already changing the way American kids think about the types of heroes women can be and the spaces women can take up — and that's a good thing.

It might only be evident in one classroom for now, but there are classrooms just like it across the country and around the world.

And when the generation raised on Patty Jenkins' film grow up, what started out as a trickle could become a wave.

Like the Amazon warrior herself, there might be no stopping it.

A Brooklyn resident named Don Phelps added this lovely touch to the Fearless Girl of Wall Street.--via Alan Kistler https://twitter.com/SizzlerKistler

Posted by Heroic Girls on Sunday, June 11, 2017
Culture

Fearless 6-year-old skater impresses, dropping into a 12-foot bowl in her pink party dress

It's one thing to see a little kid skateboarding. It's another to see a stereotype-defying little girl skateboarding. And it's entirely another to see Paige Tobin.

Paige is a 6-year-old skateboarding wonder from Australia. A recent video of her dropping into a 12-foot bowl on her has gone viral, both for the feat itself and for the style with which she does it. Decked out in a pink party dress, a leopard-print helmet, and rainbow socks, she looks nothing like you'd expect a skater dropping into a 12-foot bowl to look. And yet, here she is, blowing people's minds all over the place.

For those who may not fully appreciate the impressiveness of this feat, here's some perspective. My adrenaline junkie brother, who has been skateboarding since childhood and who races down rugged mountain faces on a bike for fun, shared this video and commented, "If I dropped in to a bowl twice as deep as my age it would be my first and last time doing so...this fearless kid has a bright future!"

It's scarier than it looks, and it looks pretty darn scary.

Paige doesn't always dress like a princess when she skates, not that it matters. Her talent and skill with the board are what gets people's attention. (The rainbow socks are kind of her signature, however.)

Her Instagram feed is filled with photos and videos of her skateboarding and surfing, and the body coordination she's gained at such a young age is truly something.

Here she was at three years old:

And here she is at age four:


So, if she dropped into a 6-foot bowl at age three and a 12-foot bowl at age six—is there such a thing as an 18-foot bowl for her to tackle when she's nine?

Paige clearly enjoys skating and has high ambitions in the skating world. "I want to go to the Olympics, and I want to be a pro skater," she told Power of Positivity when she was five. She already seems to be well on her way toward that goal.

How did she get so good? Well, Paige's mom gave her a skateboard when she wasn't even preschool age yet, and she loved it. Her mom got her lessons, and she's spent the past three years skating almost daily. She practices at local skate parks and competes in local competitions.

She also naturally has her fair share of spills, some of which you can see on her Instagram channel. Falling is part of the sport—you can't learn if you don't fall. Conquering the fear of falling is the key, and the thing that's hardest for most people to get over.

Perhaps Paige started too young to let fear override her desire to skate. Perhaps she's been taught to manage her fears, or maybe she's just naturally less afraid than other people. Or maybe there's something magical about the rainbow socks. Whatever it is, it's clear that this girl doesn't let fear get in the way of her doing what she wants to do. An admirable quality in anyone, but particularly striking to see in someone so young.

Way to go, Paige. Your perseverance and courage are inspiring, as is your unique fashion sense. Can't wait to see what you do next.

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#ScienceWillWin

We asked three people about how vaccines have impacted their lives. Here’s what they said.

Images courtesy of John Scully, Walden University, Ingrid Scully
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Since March of 2020, over 29 million Americans have been diagnosed with COVID-19, according to the CDC. Over 540,000 have died in the United States as this unprecedented pandemic has swept the globe. And yet, by the end of 2020, it looked like science was winning: vaccines had been developed.

In celebration of the power of science we spoke to three people: an individual, a medical provider, and a vaccine scientist about how vaccines have impacted them throughout their lives. Here are their answers:

John Scully, 79, resident of Florida

Photo courtesy of John Scully

When John Scully was born, America was in the midst of an epidemic: tens of thousands of children in the United States were falling ill with paralytic poliomyelitis — otherwise known as polio, a disease that attacks the central nervous system and often leaves its victims partially or fully paralyzed.

"As kids, we were all afraid of getting polio," he says, "because if you got polio, you could end up in the dreaded iron lung and we were all terrified of those." Iron lungs were respirators that enclosed most of a person's body; people with severe cases often would end up in these respirators as they fought for their lives.

John remembers going to see matinee showings of cowboy movies on Saturdays and, before the movie, shorts would run. "Usually they showed the news," he says, "but I just remember seeing this one clip warning us about polio and it just showed all these kids in iron lungs." If kids survived the iron lung, they'd often come back to school on crutches, in leg braces, or in wheelchairs.

"We all tried to be really careful in the summer — or, as we called it back then, 'polio season,''" John says. This was because every year around Memorial Day, major outbreaks would begin to emerge and they'd spike sometime around August. People weren't really sure how the disease spread at the time, but many believed it traveled through the water. There was no cure — and every child was susceptible to getting sick with it.

"We couldn't swim in hot weather," he remembers, "and the municipal outdoor pool would close down in August."

Then, in 1954 clinical trials began for Dr. Jonas Salk's vaccine against polio and within a year, his vaccine was announced safe. "I got that vaccine at school," John says. Within two years, U.S. polio cases had dropped 85-95 percent — even before a second vaccine was developed by Dr. Albert Sabin in the 1960s. "I remember how much better things got after the vaccines came out. They changed everything," John says.

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