brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) (09/01/85)
A recent article about a the author's concept of a hypothetical non-sexist society said that this would mean that: In article <6733@ucla-cs.ARPA> mccolm@ucla-cs.UUCP writes: > >5) Girls are not pressured to seem "less smart" than boys in grade school. > Now this isn't related to the source article, but I want to discuss this topic. My memory of grade school is exactly the opposite. In my schools, girls were always getting the top marks in the class. They were encouraged to be studious, and academic excellence was rewarded by their peer group. When I, as a boy, would get the top marks, I would be ridiculed by the other boys as a "browner" or whatever term was popular. Now this reverses around puberty, as I recall, no doubt due to testosterone poisoning stimulating the boys and PMS restricting the girls. 8-) By the time adulthood draws near, the old style sex roles become prominent. [My high school was still a bit different. The "top" always had fairly similar proportions of men and women. It wasn't until university that I began to ask, "where did all the smart women go?"] Anyway, was my grade school unusual, or do other people remeber this? Was my high school that unusual? -- Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd. - Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473
whitehur@tymix.UUCP (Pamela K. Whitehurst) (09/03/85)
In article <339@looking.UUCP> brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) writes: > >Now this isn't related to the source article, but I want to discuss >this topic. My memory of grade school is exactly the opposite. >In my schools, girls were always getting the top marks in the class. >They were encouraged to be studious, and academic excellence was rewarded >by their peer group. I don't remember the lower grade situation very well, but in the upper grades (5-8) girls had less school sponsored activities to receive recognition in, that made academic excellence a critical way to receive recognition. Unfortunatly, girls were also expected to do better than the boys because we were "more mature". That meant just being better than the "average boy" was not sufficient for recognition. >[My high school was still a bit different. The "top" always had fairly >similar proportions of men and women. It wasn't until university that >I began to ask, "where did all the smart women go?"] In my high school ( almost 20 years ago) the top 6 was fairly proportional. But when you looked further down the differences were terrible. Two girls in the trig class, one in solid geometry. No girls on the debate team. (one girl on the track team). I think the problem was lack of internal and external expectations. PKW -- PKW hplabs!oliveb!tymix!whitehur
sophie@mnetor.UUCP (Sophie Quigley) (09/04/85)
In article <339@looking.UUCP> brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) writes: >A recent article about a the author's concept of a hypothetical non-sexist >society said that this would mean that: >> >>5) Girls are not pressured to seem "less smart" than boys in grade school. > >Now this isn't related to the source article, but I want to discuss >this topic. My memory of grade school is exactly the opposite. >In my schools, girls were always getting the top marks in the class. >They were encouraged to be studious, and academic excellence was rewarded >by their peer group. I tend to agree with Brad here. In my grade school, in grades 1, 2, and 3, girls were better than boys and were expected to be. I don't remember the part about academic excellence being rewarded by their peer group, rather the opposite. I can't comment on grades beyond grade 3 because I went to an all-girls school then. -- Sophie Quigley {allegra|decvax|ihnp4|linus|watmath}!utzoo!mnetor!sophie
tan@ihlpg.UUCP (Bill Tanenbaum) (09/22/85)
> [Sophie Quigley] > I tend to agree with Brad here. In my grade school, in grades 1, 2, and 3, > girls were better than boys and were expected to be. I don't remember the > part about academic excellence being rewarded by their peer group, rather > the opposite. I can't comment on grades beyond grade 3 because I went to > an all-girls school then. ---------- It holds true all through grade school and high school. I just looked in my high school yearbook. The National Honor Society had 28 girls and only 9 boys! This is in a school with approximately the same number of boys and girls! Now everyone can confirm this by looking in their yearbook (at least those of us who went to coed U. S. public schools). -- Bill Tanenbaum - AT&T Bell Labs - Naperville IL ihnp4!ihlpg!tan