🚀 go-pugleaf

"Don H" <donlhumphries@bigpond.com> wrote in message
news:vauxb.29877$aT.2901@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
> It is possible to claim a basic biological difference between the sexes;
> that phenotype reflects genotype, that boys tend to be more active and
> exploratory than girls, who, in turn, tend to be placid and receptive.
Boys
> are focussed, single-issued; girls, comprehensive, multi-skilled.  Each
has
> its own worthy qualities, neither to be disparaged.  Such characterisation
> should not be taken too rigidly, but as a broad observation.  Hence, boys
> would appreciate word-analysis and synthesis, thus the Phonic Method suits
> them better.  Girls might like words, as wholes, and their relationships.
> (Whether all of the above is really a result of social upbringing is still
> the big question. Gender Equality should be encouraged, insofar as it is
> possible - but does that leave an irreducible residue attributable to
> biology alone?)
> =========================

It's probably an issue that we'll never totally understand. For instance,
where does behavior leave off and genetic predisposition take over. If a
particular behavior, stumbled upon by an early individual, due to its
particular success, becomes an adopted behavior through learning such that
the particular branch of the gene pool ultimately reinforces that behavior
in a way that it becomes instinctive, is it then behavioral or genetic? I
don't claim to know any answer; just that your response sparked the question
in my mind.

I reminded of an online presentation I saw recently: a professor of
mathematics at a Canadian university (can't remember which, offhand)
recounted studies with subjects while developing an educational computer
program for teaching math. She said that though the male participants on the
outside tended to exhibit better results in that they completed the program
first, through post testing it was determined that the famale subjects
actually derived more value from the program in that they tended to be less
preoccupied with achieving the end of the program and were more inclined to
explore alternatives.

This was intriguing to me, as I work as a programmer for a company that
produces an on-line beginning reading program for pre-school and early grade
children.

-- 
"There are 10 kinds of people in the world:
those who understand binary numbers and those who don't."
-----------------------------
Byron "Barn" Canfield