Slowping's Journal: of boys and girls in education

I saw this link somewhere in Slashdot, and added it to my "to read" list. But I have unfortnately forgotten which post (or the poster) that I got this from.

Anyways, here's an interesting and well written article regarding the educational and performance gap between boys and girls. Though not a peer-reviewed publication itself, it's still an interesting read.

I find myself, too, wondering about the issues raised in this article. As far back as I can remember, I always remember girls being smarter than most of us boys. It was to the point that they were generally considered the smarter sex. That trend appears to continue past high-school, since the vast majority of students at my undergraduate university were females, and here at graduate school, almost 60% of the incoming graduate students were female.

So why is it that males are still considered dominant? A good question. I find myself torn on this issue, since looking around my computer science classes and groups, I still see more males. But is this a crisis? Is there a "Men in Psychology" group in the same way there is a "Women in Computing" group?

I must admit that I feel disdain for the idea. It's fine to have a group, but to have scholarships and workshops available only to women for "women in computing"?

To me, this issue is even more powerful than that of race.

Ah well.. but I ramble on. Time to stop.

Here's a quote from the article... it felt very close to me, since I have often been placed to feel this way when it came to girls and computer science.

A boy today, through no fault of his own, finds himself implicated in the social crime of shortchanging girls. Yet the allegedly silenced and neglected girl sitting next to him is likely to be the superior student. She is probably more articulate, more mature, more engaged, and more well-balanced. The boy may be aware that she is more likely to go on to college. He may believe that teachers prefer to be around girls and pay more attention to them. At the same time, he is uncomfortably aware that he is considered to be a member of the favored and dominant gender.