Thanks to the reader who sent the link to this story about the sources of math anxiety in girls:
Little girls may learn to fear math from the women who are their earliest teachers. Despite gains in recent years, women still trail men in some areas of math achievement, and the question of why has provoked controversy. Now, a study of first- and second-graders suggests what may be part of the answer: Female elementary school teachers who are concerned about their own math skills could be passing that along to the little girls they teach.
Young students tend to model themselves after adults of the same sex, and having a female teacher who is anxious about math may reinforce the stereotype that boys are better at math than girls, explained Sian L. Beilock, an associate professor in psychology at the University of Chicago.
But boys have their own set of math problems, according to Richard Whitmire, author of the new book “Why Boys Fail: Saving Our Sons from an Educational System That’s Leaving Them Behind“. From the book’s description on Amazon:
Even in their traditionally strong subjects of science and math, boys are hit at a young age with new educational approaches, stressing high-level reading and writing goals that they are developmentally unable to achieve. The gap between male and female achievement has reached the college level, where only 40 per cent of graduates next year will be male.
