Tuesday, October 30, 2007
In Response to Prompt 9
I find this prompt very interesting because I am always analyzing my own thoughts in terms of math and science. Growing up I was always disinterested in math and science, not because of bad teachers, but because I really felt like I "couldn't" do it. I had so many male friends that loved the subject and in turn, did really well. I have to say that I also had female friends that excelled in these subjects so I have trouble saying that it is completely a gendered situation. I do think that the encouragment level for girls is a little less than the encouragment levels that males recieve towards these subjects. I think that this has more to do with it, and as a society we glorify males in types of professions that deal with math and science, and glorify female professions that deal more with nurturing or teaching. It's all a very interesting stereotype which seems to prove true a lot of times. I do think that we are starting to turn a corner, is this true?
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2 comments:
Alyssa,
What you said is something that I have always fallen back on...stereotypes exist for a reason.
Yes, there are exceptions. But for the most part, they exist and validate a stereotype.
I am one of those math/science girls and I continued my math education in college. Fortunately for me, it has worked to my advantage since it is uncommon to see female math teachers and someone like myself would be able to have many opportunities to easily get a math teaching position (or so I've been told). I don't think that it's a completely gendered situation or if it is completely stereotypical. The right brain/left brain theory has shown that some students simply perform better when faced with the demands of math/science versus the other subjects. I definitely agree that students gravitate towards a subject because of biases but I also think that it has a lot to do with how a person is made up.
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