I got a good laugh out of this clip from the Simpsons.
I don't know if it is still being seriously argued in some feminist quarters that it is necessary to take the "male" bias out of math to make math accessible to girls. In my own experience teaching math to middle graders, I find that girls do very well with real math, for the most part better than boys.
In any event, the clip is funny at least as a museum piece.
Hat tip: Mindless Math Mutterings
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5 comments:
The piece is still relevant, maybe not with respect to girl/boy bias, but to the treatment of math in general. "Math problems" are just so yesterday. Let's talk about how we feel about it.
Most of my best (6th grade) math performers are girls (there are plenty of high-performing boys, too). Some of them are true superstars. I remember a very tough trapezoid area problem I gave as an extra credit on a test (it involved using the Pythagorean Theorem to calculate the height). Several girls nailed it.
Of course, there are plenty of girls hugging the bottom.
Classic! Fuzzy math at its finest.
Study: Math Stereotype + Girls = Anxiety
Idea That Boys Better At Math Affects Girls' Scores
POSTED: 2:50 pm CDT June 11, 2007
The stereotype that says that boys are better at mathematics causes anxiety in girls, affecting their performance in the subject, according to research at the University of Chicago.
Researchers found that such worrying affects girls' working memory, which controls the information needed immediately to deal with problems at hand.
The full story here: http://www.ketv.com/education/13482016/detail.html?taf=oma
Definitely still relevant!
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