Sunday, September 17, 2017

You'd Think This Would Be Max Male-hatred, But I'm Sure There's More (and sillier) To Come

There's no indication that this article is meant to be anything other than sober and sincere:
Some of you will think we’re daft. Some will wonder what kind of jobs we have if we have enough time on our hands to dream this kind of thing up. Some of you may even think we’re having you on. Our intentions, however, are honourable.

Playful urination practices – from seeing how high you can pee to games such as Peeball (where men compete using their urine to destroy a ball placed in a urinal) – may give boys an advantage over girls when it comes to physics. And we believe there’s something we can do about it.

No doubt you have some questions, the first is probably: what could possibly lead us to believe this?
Daft? That's the nicest I'll think of them.

I was expecting their solution to this "gender gap" to be that boys should be required to sit down when taking a pee.  Fortunately, their solution is slightly less foolish:
However, we can make a change: it’s not necessary for physics curricula to begin with projectile motion. Other topics, such as energy conservation, which is more central to physics, could be taught first instead...

Girls are already at a cultural disadvantage in a traditionally male-dominated subject: let’s not add an embodied disadvantage by unthinkingly sticking with traditional curriculum sequencing.
Serious question:  why does no one freak out about not enough men in women-dominated fields?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

There has been a push to get more men as elementary teachers.

For years people have been concerned about helping boys do better in reading. Here in Colorado, Boulder put together a set of "boy friendly" teaching practices to help boys catch up. Some districts even offer all male schools for struggling boys. The head of education in Great Britain said that he would resign if he wasn't able to help boys catch up with girls in reading.

If people are willing to go to all this effort to help boys with reading, why not make a similar effort to help girls with math and physics?

Anonymous said...

In that case these radical feminist must be great at physics too since they seem to have so much experience with mental gymnastics

Darren said...

1st anonymous:
1. 2 examples is hardly "all this effort".
2. Nobody is suggesting that girls shouldn't be helped. I question the premise of this suggestion, though--that girls are at a disadvantage because boys pee standing up. If that premise is wrong, then changing the curriculum as suggested isn't justified. Has anyone tried this modified curriculum, and seed the desired results?
3. While I have no personal objection to single sex schools, "separate but equal" has a bad history in this country and would most likely be shot down in any court in which it's challenged.

Anonymous said...

Darren, I don't think that we disagree all that much. I would agree that the "pee standing up" thing is ridiculous.

As a reading teacher, I can tell you that the concern about helping boys catch up with girls in reading is a big thing. There is a session or workshop on the problem in almost any conference I've attended. I didn't want to bore people with a big list.

I enjoy reading your take on issues in math which isn't my area of specialty.