School Teaches Boys Are Better Than Girls At Math

It has been considered the case for a long time now that boys are better than girls at the sciences and math; the girls being superior at the humanities.  Although there is no reason why girls would be worse at math, a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has found that teachers instill into girls the idea that they are not good at math. This then causes anxiety and a subsequent decrease in performance.

Women are therefore being discouraged from beginning a science or mathematics course in university because of a very wrong stereotype they hold because it was taught to them in school. In fact, girls generally outperform boys in tests. The average end-of-high-school exam scores are higher for girls than boys, but teachers hold the idea that girls shouldn’t try at maths or get involved in the sciences because, according to them, females are biologically inferior to males in this area.

It is a very wrong, damaging stereotype that girls are not as good as boys at the sciences and math. Stereotyping is more serious than you might think. In a study that had Asian girls complete a series of math questions, it was found that, when it was brought to mind the stereotype that girls are not as good at maths as boys, they performed worse than when it was brought to mind the stereotype that Asians were good at math. Stereotypes are serious. And wrong, harmful stereotypes are being propagated by our education system.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-stereotyping-yourself-contributes-to-success

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=little-girls-are-made-of-sugar-and-2010-01-25

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