become just as fluently competent with computers as boys. There are still
differences in what they do with computers, but both girls and boys have
fully embraced computers as essential tools for helping to achieve their
goals.
Fred
--
Fred Bartels
Dir. of Info. Tech.
Rye Country Day School
On Fri, Oct 16, 2009 at 9:49 AM, Robin Peralta
<REP@episcopalhighschool.org>wrote:
> Don't forget the flip side of that coin. Too often girls who may be
> interested have a tendency to "dumb down" when a "cute boy" is in the room -
> mortified I watched my own daughter do this several times. They don't want
> to appear to be smarter than the boy they may like. Also, there is the
> whole "geek" connotation. A girl who is not secure with herself - and let's
> face it, how many teenage girls really are - don't want their friends to
> think they are geeks. Secretly it's okay to be smart, but in public the
> fear of being ostracized for being smart is still very real.
>
> Robin
>
> >>> "Rodrigues, John" <rodrigues@nais.org> 10/16/2009 9:00 AM >>>
> Thanks, indeed, for sharing the article, Marty. I wonder, however, if most
> of this behavior shouldn't be attributed to the patriarchal/male-dominated
> environment that our children grow up in? That same Newsweek article also
> notes:
>
>
> Blame (a) culture (b) family (c) schools (d) all of the above. Little boys
> are expected to roll around in the dirt and explore. Perfect training for
> learning to use computers, which often requires hours in front of the screen
> trying to figure out the messy arcanum of a particular program. Girls get
> subtle messages-from society if not from their parents-that they should keep
> their hands clean and play with their dolls. Too often, they're discouraged
> from taking science and math-not just by their schools but by parents as
> well (how many mothers have patted their daughters on the head and reassured
> them: "Oh, I wasn't good at math, either").
>
>
>
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