Personally I think Boys really DO have cooties... does that affect thier performance in math class??

http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/10/19/women.math.ap/index.html


Have you ever heard of self-fullfilled prophecy?? Apparently most of our country's teachers haven't heard of the concept. There's a reason that there's still a rather large gender gap regarding professions in the sciences. It all goes back to education (doesn't everything??). For years, girls have been told that they're just not good at math because they're girls, and boys have more attention in the classroom, and intellectual encouragement since the first day they step into kindergarden.

I've read literature that sites specific examples of how boys and girls are treated differently in the classroom. As a little boy, your teachers ask you encouraging questions if a new subject is brought up: i.e. "You found a frog in your back yard, Billy? Well, where do you think that frog came from? Do you know what kind of places they live in?" The comments given to girls are more geared toward sensitive behavior, personal appearance: "Your dress is very pretty, Katie," "That's not very lady-like, Cindy!" It has also been statistically observed that boys are called on more than girls, and that when a male student has a problem with an exercise, the teacher tends to work through the problem WITH the boy, while they are more apt to just do the problem FOR the girl.

So what conclusions can we draw from this?? Obviously expectations play a key role in performance. This is a pretty obvious concept when it comes to everyday life, but we have to apply it to today's girls. I was told not to long ago that it was statistically proven that girls are inherently bad at math. When I heard that, I laughed. I'm GREAT at math, and what's worse is that I know many more girls that are better at math than guys. I'd like to meet the male scientist that made THAT discovery. I also think it's great that there are so many groups working to get girls into the field of science. I'm studying biology and psychology, so hopefully one day I'll be making the discovery that boys are actually poo-heads that have cooties (no, seriously... hehe).

But in all seriousness, I'm happy that it's being brought to attention this idea. If we continually let the media, and our teachers, convince girls that they will not succeed in math and science, why would they try? I say hell yes to empowering girls to strive to do thier best and prove that we are not an intellectually weaker sex! By the way, I'd encourage you all to read the article, the methods they used to test this hypothesis are incredibly interesting.

And now for my question (I always ask at least one!): Girls and guys alike, are YOU good at math?? Let us know your gender, and how you would grade yourself. I'll start with myself... GIRL (usually referred to as a HOT MAMA or a book worm ha!) A.