🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Oct5.165327.16115@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> 
crb7q@kelvin.seas.Virginia.EDU (Cameron Randale Bass) writes:

>In article <BvnJnx.52y@helios.physics.utoronto.ca> 
>dooley@helios.physics.utoronto.ca (Kevin Dooley) writes:

>>This is especially true with girls who are repeatedly told that
>>they should not be good at math or science courses because their brains
>>don't work that way.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  Let's
>>not permit marketing idiots to create yet another generation of math
>>anxiety and women who believe that they are somehow inferior!

>    Most kids who do badly in Math do so because it *is* hard, just
>    as English is hard, Chemistry is hard, Social Studies is hard.
>    Also, I hardly think that most girls are told that they should not
>    be good at math.  If you want to change math anxiety,

While I agree with the first statement (though I would have phrased it another 
way) I must differ with the second.  Throughout high school I constantly had
to put up with teachers giving me *shit* because I consistently outperformed
the males in my math and science classes.  In one class I got a full grade
lower than I deserved and when I asked why I was told, because I was a girl.
[This was a math class, BTW]  In a biology class, I got the highest score in
the class and my friend David had to be publicly humiliated by the teacher
because he let a *girl* beat his score.  How could he do such a thing? -- the
teacher asked him in class.

I also vaguely remember taking standardized tests on math & English skills,
[California requires that these be administered every other year, or did when
I was in school] and being told ahead of time that it was OK to do poorly
on the math parts cuz girls usually didn't do as well as the boys.

So, I think that society does promulgate the stereotype, discouraging women
to get involved in the sciences by both subtle and overt "math is not for
you" messages to girls.
    
I don't think it's an organized plot or anything though...

[sorry about the language.  not sorry enough to take it out]

-- 
If you blow fire against the wind, take care to not get the smoke in your eyes.
      Big & Growly Dragon-monster        |       bafta@cats.ucsc.edu
     ------> shari brooks <-------       |       bafta@ucscb.ucsc.edu
                             All opinions are my own.