Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (Cyndi Lauper)

I have to process some of the stuff that just happened in class.

We talked about gender. A favorite topic for educators today. How does gender play out in the classroom? How do we reinforce gender stereotypes? Are teachers sexist?

Here's the thing. I believe that there are inherent differences in males and females. There. It goes back to Genesis. "It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." (Gen. 2:18) Males and females have different anatomy, physiology, body chemistry, DESIGN! Adam was designed to care for the garden; Eve was designed to help him.

From a 21st century viewpoint, this is unfair. It's unjust. It's unequal. *BUT!* But but but! "You are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ." (Gal. 3:26) So there IS equality of value in dissimilar designs.

Okay, with that understanding...I think men and women probably learn differently. We have different designs, we have different natural dispositions (probably not a "correct" psychology term), we have different modes of functioning.

In the same way, among groups of females, we have different designs, different natural dispositions, different modes of functioning. The same is true for males.

We read this case study for class. Students are learning the respiratory system. There's a computer program that takes students on a tour of the system, and then simulates the function of the respiratory system - so students can learn the parts, and see it work. Great. This case study puts forth 3 pairs of students, all male/female pairs. In each pair, the male is doing the activity on the computer, and the female is recording their findings on a worksheet. The case study goes on to represent the bickering between these pairs. "No, you got that wrong." "You're scrolling too fast!" Etc. - - - The case study picks up the next day: Did students actually learn the material? 6 students' responses are recorded, 2 are female, all are correct. Only 1 of the students was depicted doing the work the day before.

The book goes on to ask questions: "Ms. McNaught ignores the students' bickering in the lab. Is this a good strategy? Why or why not?" and "In what ways are male and female students in Ms. McNaught's class having different educational experiences?"

We talked about this for awhile in class today. Studies show that there are discrepancies in the way males and females are treated in class. Teachers call on males more. They address males' questions more often. Teachers write different types of comments on students' papers (on a female paper: great handwriting and style, on a male paper: great content). Now this just seems absurd and problematic to me.

However, it also seems like it's not the whole picture. I sat there for the entire class period thinking, "if I was a student in this class, I would have been taking the notes, I may have bickered with my partner, and I don't think I would've answered one of the questions in class the next day. But that's me!"

I find it interesting that we focus on the male/female distinction without regard to, "Do these individual females simply prefer note-taking?"

I also find it hypocritical that we talked about personality assessments, particularly the differences between introverts and extroverts and the tendency for introverts to let everyone have their say before speaking up in class, but then ignored that factor in discussing the case study. Isn't it possible that the 3 pairs we saw could have just been pairs of introverts and extroverts! Or they could have been pairs of all introverts, which is why only 1 of them spoke up on class the next day!

The thing that drove me nuts all through college and my teaching fellows classes was the tendency to boil things down to one particular issue. "X is the factor that is at work here. We need to understand it in these terms." But Eve wasn't designed just to be a helper. Her anatomy enables her to be a mother. Her human nature enables her to be a companion. Her status as "created being" allows her to be a worshiper. When we discuss a case study like this from the 1 point of view, we miss out on all the other diversity! Diverse learners, diverse practitioners.

I get so fed up with "learning" about a single perspective and then viewing something with *that* perspective rather than taking a comprehensive approach.

Maybe I'm just pissed because I felt discriminated against as an individual who would have been perfectly content to function in that classroom setting, still probably would have understood the material, and would be happy! "Oh, but we need to encourage exploration so that students don't 'foreclose' their identities." What if a student has found his or her identity? What if that was it?

It's not fair because one case study doesn't represent a year of work in a classroom and the plethora of learning environments that classroom and student combination can create. It's not fair because thinking of "gender stereotyping" as bad doesn't allow for those folks who actually fit the bill. It's not fair because we are sinful.



On a side note, one of the comments made about males vs. females is that when they perform poorly on, say, a math test, the males tend to blame the teacher and the females tend to blame themselves.

I went to my instructor to talk about a discussion I have to lead this Thursday. I hadn't read at all, hadn't prepared anything, just wanted to touch base with her. She says "Well, it would have been helpful if you'd done the reading..." What's my reaction? "Crap, I've done it again. Approached a professor in ignorance because I didn't prioritize things this weekend. Now she thinks I'm stupid and ill-prepared when really I'm a good student."

I think, with her permission, I'm going to try to be pissed at her. But I don't even know how I can rationally do that.

Was her behavior at all sexist?

I think it'd be a bullshit conversation to have, but she'd probably love it.