[Article] Do Mars and Venus collide in your classroom?

LPH · #1 (**permalink**) 05-01-2004, 10:11 AM

It’s time for a pop quiz. Picture a geek. Imagine the hair, the face, the body structure. Is the hair messy? Is the face pimpled and crinkled? Is the individual short and rather non-muscular? Now, Take a deep breath and smell the aroma. Can you smell the person before they arrive?

It’s time to grade your quiz. Did you picture an unwashed, anti-social male who has a super high IQ but rarely puts together a coherent sentence? Ah, a stereotypical made for TV geek. You are not alone. Only a few rare and special people picture a female as a geek. You earned an A plus if you pictured a female too.

In my classroom, I have a mix of students that fit the above image but several geeks who don’t fit the stereotype. These individuals love computers, Tablet PCs, mobile phones, and boys. They are bright, energetic, and talented girls. And many of them bathe regularly (phew).

Female geeks are like small and shiny crystals in the sand on a beach. Waves from the ocean beat on them, crashing down and drawing them away from shore. People pass by and ignore them. People step on them, crushing them. People throw trash on them. While others scoop them up and include them to build their castles in the sand.

These young ladies are not sand, though, and they are not a myth. They exist in my classroom, probably yours too. But you’d never notice them unless you listen and watch carefully. They are quiet, polite, and unassuming. Hopefully you are not like the ocean waves but instead supporting their love of math, science, and technology and including them on building a castle.

How do you know if you are inclusive and supportive? Here’s a homework assignment for you. Design a lesson that requires the use of computers. Include one special instruction to the mix by pairing one female student with a male student. Who grabs the mouse first? Who is providing instructions? Now, mix up the students with gender segregated pairs. Now what happens?

Now, if you don’t want to have a special “test” run lesson plan then listen for the following clues. A young lady blurts out that she wants a Tablet PC, PDA, or another type of geek toy. Do others engage in a conversation with this individual? Do they ask questions about the type of Tablet PC she’d love to have? Do the boys drown her out in the conversation? Do the boys physically displace the female by moving close, blocking your view, circling the poor girl?

I’d love to know what happens if you try this experiment in your classroom or you decide to listen to the student conversations. Sadly, all of the above happens in my classroom and I’ve been trying to figure out how to support the young ladies. Do you have any ideas?

And as I’m typing this, my youngest daughter is on her computer, wearing a headset, playing a game, surfing the web, adding entries to her blog, laughing about a set of jokes she found on a webpage, and chatting on MSN Messenger. Clearly I’m able to provide the environment in my home – but maybe because there aren’t any boys present.

LPH · #2 (**permalink**) 05-01-2004, 11:04 AM

Some great points are made in the blog entry Women and Tech...Again. The entry points to more comments from another female blogger who has even more valid points.