Are girls different than boys?

      I think that girls are different than boys in many ways. Obviously we are biologically different, but we also speak and act differently, dress differently, and throughout history have done different activities. I don’t think that anyone would have to stretch the idea that we learn differently as well. The primary source article that I choose was about a study done that tested Mathematical thinking differences between kindergarten girls and boys. The study “suggested that differences in mathematics performance between boys and girls may not be entirely determined genetically and are at least partially affected by environmental variables, particularly the teacher’s behavior.” I definitely agree with this idea. I think that there are some genetic differences between the girls and boys process information. I think the math and science gender gap comes from the way students are taught. Stereotyping for sure puts an impression on students, but there are many smaller influences for why this gap occurs in my opinion.  I think that it has a lot to do with Dweck’s “messages about success”. Children read the things we say quite differently than how the message was intended. I think of the kindergartener Bruce from Mindset, whose teacher and mother gave him two very different answers to questions he asked. Only his teacher was able to understand the hidden concerns and tell him what he really wanted to know. I also think that teaching styles have a lot to do with student’s individual success. I had an Algebra I teacher my freshmen year of high school who talked incredibly fast. I could barely keep up with her. I tried to write notes and got lost and I misunderstood directions or just didn’t hear them at all. When I asked her to repeat them she would get very angry and say I should have listened the first time. I spent the entire year completely lost and I hadn’t been that great at math to start out with. I progressively got worse and worse. When I moved on to geometry I did not know the formulas necessary to do the work. I started going to a tutor after school just to keep up. My Geometry teacher picked on me and enjoyed pointing out to the class that “my tutor must not be very good since I still couldn’t get a good grade.”The next year I had Algebra II, and my teacher was excellent. She would stay after class with me every day during her lunch break going over basic Algebra and Geometry things with me so that I could keep up in her class. I maintained an A for almost the entire year because of her dedication and support. If I had not had this teacher, I probably would still think that I was a failure at math. I still think that it’s my worst subject, I just am more confident in my problem solving abilities now. I don’t really know how a boy in my exact situation would have reacted. I do know that my little brother is a freshmen this year and he had a very good math teacher his 8^th grade year. He is doing very well this year in his math class. I don’t know if this is because he is just naturally “better” at math, or because he had a great teacher, or if he just really likes math. Whatever the reason, this is an area that my brother and I differ greatly in. I think that Gladwell would agree with the article, but I’m not quite sure about Dweck. The article places a lot of responsibility on environment and circumstances. Gladwell might say that I would have been an excellent math student if I had received a proper math education. Dweck would be more inclined to believe that it would be how I processed the information given to me by teachers and parents, which I see as maybe being a genetic situation. She would probably say that a boy might have processed the information given to me differently than I had and been more successful. I do believe that girls and boys are different and agree with the article. It’s kind of a combination of both Gladwell’s and Dweck’s perspectives. I tend to believe more in the environmental influences than the genetic influences, but I do think that it is very probable that they exist.