Debunking brain differences again
Dear Marian,
Yikes! I suspect there are still those who think these things, although maybe they are more embarrassed to say them aloud. What we need is for the cost of saying them to become higher every year. Then maybe none of the young women engineers will encounter the phrases that are so ignorant but also so painful in their dismissal of women's worth.
cheers,
Laura
Hi Helen,
All these school horror stories are very discouraging, but I still think it's important to keep on trying. I'm sure that some of the girls you saw staring into space were thinking! I like to think so, at least.
cheers,
Laura
Laura,
One of my early bosses (a PhD engineer) said to my face that women couldn't do mathematics because they had no spatial perception. As a woman with a PhD in applied math I was more than offended. Worse yet, many of his colleagues agreed with him.
I think most of my teachers, pre-college and even some in college, were less that encouraging to me, suggesting many side paths, e.g., pharmacist, school teacher, etc. "Women just don't do math" was the common theme.
Marian
Yup. It's insidious. I taught hands-on science in grades 1-6 part time at my kids' school for much of a decade, and all the classes seemed to have more boys than girls, tho that's statistically absurd. My kids exemplified it, too - when I asked a 4th grade class what work was, my son, to my amazement, answered that it was force times distance. My daughter, on the other hand, tended to look bored. The sex difference was most dramatic among the Mexican kids, where the boys cooperated amazingly with their batteries and bulbs, while the girls tended to think science had nothing to do with them.
The stereotypes were pervasive. My daughter used to get annoyed with me when I'd help her practice spelling, using the sentences she was given - I was always commenting on how the girls did passive stuff like combing their hair, while the boys did exciting things.
To your point Laura, this type of information is included in special education instruction. But because there is little specific training for math or science teachers beyond general teaching training, they don't hear it. Even if they have a math or science background they are unlikely to hear it in their college classes because it's something "everyone knows" and doesn't get discussed.
So yes, it would certainly help if the NSTA and math teachers' association would make an effort to educate their members.
As for teachers not having the time to read anything that actually pertains to their job...that's why my kids will go to private school where I have more say in how their time is spent and how class size is controlled. I have no desire to fight apathy and sloth in the public school system. There are fantastic public school teachers which I've been fortunate enough to experience. But sadly you get more bad than good these days.
Thanks, Livi and Elinor, and thanks Christianne and Ilona for the resources for informing these teachers that they need to rethink their positions. It's disheartening that they do this, but I've also heard about inspiring teachers elsewhere. I'm wondering if there needs to be a national push for including this information in teacher training?
cheers,
Laura
Thanks, Laura!
These teachers need to hear from us, and reliable sources that actually document how WRONG this idea is.
It's up to us to do as much debunking as we can about this alarming misunderstanding about women's intellectual capabilities! Regarding math ability--the myth about those "differences" has finally been put to bed. Announced this week, the Mertz and Kane study is the most definitive and comprehensive debunk of this common misconception (translate: ka-pow, they nailed it).
Go here for the BEST SYNOPSIS of this study (with context) that I have seen so far:
"There is no difference"
http://io9.com/5867401/there-really-is-no-difference-between-men-and-womens-math-abilities
And go here for the actual source, the Mertz and Kane publication/pdf at the American Mathematical Society (AMS)
http://www.ams.org/staff/jackson/fea-mertz.pdf
Wow! I'm dismayed to read Elinor and Livi's comments. My kids are still too young to be in school, so I haven't run into this kind of barrier from teachers. It's very upsetting to hear that some teachers still believe and feel free to express to parents these stereotypical views about girls and science/math. It sounds like we still have lots of work to do to dispel those myths.
Christi
Hi Laura,
I wanted to start a club for girls interested in science at my daughter's school, but the principal told me girls are not good at science and said I'd have to take both boys and girls. I said never mind. It makes me so mad that they just won't look at the evidence.
My daughter's seventh grade science teacher told me that girls are not as good at math in our conference. I told her I would give her some papers showing she was wrong, but she said no thanks. She doesn't have time to read them. Ugh. LM
