of troy,
You make excellent points.
Vika,
Don't buy into any theory that pushes women into a lower mental status than men. There are simply too many exceptions to the so-called rules.
I'll give you one just for the sake of writing. Categorically the most brilliant student I ever had the pleasure and honor of teaching was a girl, whose father is an award-winning physicist. She was (and is) incredibly gifted in music. She was accepted into the Curtis Institute of Music when only 13. She began working on her bachelor's degree in music at the highly prestigious Curtis school while also attending the Masterman School in Philadelphia for her high school diploma. Both Curtis and the Masterman schools are for highly gifted students. You would be hard pressed to find many boys who could have pulled off earning high school diplomas and masters degrees at the same time at two such schools.
Now how would you go about explaining the fact that this girl achieved what she achieved? Is she a freak? No. Her parents highly valued education, encouraged her to achieve her highest in all fields, even moved to Philadelphia so their daughter could achieve as much as possible. I read several news articles about her, and even her sterling character blazed forth. She never turned in assignments late when extreme pressure was upon her. When she had to pull long days of intense study off, her dad would say to her (as her mom told me he'd said to her many a time), "It won't kill you." Edit: I want to add that she took science awards at the Masterman School.
And today, at the age of eighteen, she's earning her masters at Julliard.
I agree completely with of troy here. Much of what happens to girls has to do with the environment parents provide. Girls who may be geniuses may be encouraged to go into areas in which their genius simply cannot flourish. Tradition. Lack of understanding. The easy way out. Denial. Stereotypical thinking. Parents fall into the cultural trap. And genius does not guarantee the fighting spirit.
We place so much stress upon improving education, but the area we should really improve is parent education. Particularly parent education regarding the raising of girls.
Have you ever read "The Women's Room" by Virginia Woolf? [Edit Correction--thanks, of troy! "A Room of My Own"]Second Edit: "A Room of One's Own"--sheesh. Read it! If not, that's a good starting point though written so long ago. Woolf doesn't address the sciences--if my memory serves me correctly, though I could be wrong--but she does address the problems the female sex encounters in trying to distinguish itself in a male-dominated world with male-dominated histories, achievement, and even so-called scientific sociology studies.
If I bought into your way of thinking, what very sad repercussions would my female students suffer. Instead, I am by far more alert to possibility that sitting in my classrooms could be the beginnings of brilliance in both my male and female students. I don't buy into your comments that puberty is going to wipe out the female brain--cross-thread ref. Genius is rare, but recognized genius is a thrilling moment for educators--and it should be for parents, too. And not just genius, but executions of superior human intelligence, whether displayed by obviously bright humans or average people who have brilliant moments of perception and insight.
I would entreat you to open your own mind up to finding those exceptions to the rule--as many as you can find--and eventually you'll realize the rule is antiquated and to be held in high suspicion.
Best regards,
WW
