Do girls need special attention when it comes to science, math, and technology topics? In response to last week’s article about Techbridge, the after-school science program specifically geared to girls, some readers strongly refuted the notion that girls need the extra nudge.
“‘Steering’ something suggests directing it in a path it would not normally, of its own inclination, go!” wrote reader Julian Penrod. “The very title connotes a program to give an impression of female overall interest in the hard sciences, even though it wouldn’t necessarily, on its own, exist. In other words, a fraud.”
The reader raises a subtle but important issue — but it goes much deeper than that. According to Claude Steele, author of Whistling Vivaldi and Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us, it’s not that girls aren’t necessarily interested in science and math, it’s whether they’re discouraged from following their interests because of the persistent stereotype that girls aren’t good at that sort of thing.
http://mindshift.kqed.org/2012/01/girls-and-math-busting-the-stereotype/
No comments:
Post a Comment