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.

Success is the disease of me!

 In our society, success is the only acceptable option. We pressure our children to be the smartest student, the best athlete, the most talented artist, etc. Parents expect greatness from their children at an early age. Think of the mothers who sit around bragging about their babies: “Well my little Jimmy was walking at 9 months”.

There is no room for failure in this fast paced world. We need to slow down for a little while and understand that failure can be good too. Failure teaches you how to persevere in hard times and it brings humility and strength. Let’s continue to use babies as an example. How did you learn how to walk? Trial and error is the more likely method, rather than hopping out of your mother’s arms and running away. Failure is a natural part of life, but we have made it a taboo subject. If we continue this destructive path, we will soon create a nation of fixed mindsets. Where would we go from there? There is no room for growth in a fixed mindset.

If you experience failure you can use it as a learning tool for your future. This is a growth mindset. There are more possibilities and opportunities for the growth mindset than the fixed mindset. I love Dr. Dweck’s example of Elizabeth, the young gymnast. She expected to walk out of her first meet with ribbons to hang on her wall. When she didn’t, her father told her that she did not yet deserve the awards, as she had not worked as long and hard as some of the other girls. Elizabeth was able to use his advice to grow and become a better gymnast, so that the next time she competed she was able to win many ribbons. If he had told her she had been cheated, or that she’d get them next time, or that gymnastics didn’t really matter anyway, than Elizabeth would have no chance at improving because of a fixed mindset learned by her father. This is the same theory that Jon Carroll, of the San Francisco Chronicle had when he wrote:  “Failure is how we learn. I have been told of an African phrase describing a good cook as "she who has broken many pots." If you've spent enough time in the kitchen to have broken a lot of pots, probably you know a fair amount about cooking.”

Success is the disease of all humans. It is something we desire greatly and place above all other things. We can lose sight of who we are by letting our quest for success take over our lives. Failure is natural and it is a good thing to experience, yet we avoid it at all costs. I think that is what Dr. Dweck was saying in Mindset.

Natural vs. Experience

          When I first received this assignment, I have to admit that I couldn’t think of anything that I was a natural at. I have things that I am good at and enjoy doing, like music and writing, but I didn’t just wake up one day and realize that I was good at them. I have had to work extremely hard to get where I am today.

                 I started playing the flute in the 4^th grade at a private Catholic school that I had attended since kindergarten. In the 5^th grade, my parents transferred me to a public school with no band program, so I missed out on a full year of band, but took private lessons with a family friend. In the 6^th grade, I started with a leg up on the other kids, because they had never had the private school music experience. Soon after the year started though, my band director died and we were “taught” by a permanent substitute with little or no musical background. In 7^th grade, my musical education finally became more normal. I had band three days a week with a real teacher. I played flute in the concert band and also played the keyboard in the Jazz Band. In 8^th grade I was the first chair flute. I auditioned for Region IX Honor Band and got last chair, but I was there. My freshmen year I started marching band and I was probably the worst flute player there. I’m not afraid to admit it. I couldn’t read music, I couldn’t play the higher notes required by a flute player, and I was a failure on the marching field. Concert Band was even worse. We did chair auditions to place us in a spot in either the Symphonic or “the dumb band” as it was not so affectionately called. I bet you can guess which band I was in. Imagine the torture as a freshman reading your name next to the words: lesser band, last chair. I thought that I was better than that. I worked hard to overcome my problems. I took theory lessons and learned how to adequately read music. I took more flute lessons and I practiced more and harder. Over the next two years, I got better and better. My junior year, I auditioned for Drum Major and I got it! In concert band, the director had combined the Symphonic and “dumb” band. I earned the second chair spot in the flute section. My senior year, I won a best drum major award and became co-section leader. I worked hard because of how much I loved band and it paid off! I felt confident enough with my work in high school to move on to college level music. I am now playing the piccolo in Marshall University’s Marching Thunder. I am not, nor will I ever be an amazing musician. I don't want to be.  I love music, and I am pretty decent at it, but I am not a natural musician.

                I also love writing and a lot of people tell me that I am very good at it, even going as far as to say that I am a natural at it. I am not as convinced though. It takes me forever to write something. I will stare at my computer screen for an hour before I think of anything to type. I will probably type, delete, and rewrite parts of papers at least ten times before I turn it in. My papers are always goldmines for grammatical and spelling errors. If I work really hard and focus on only the paper for several days, I can usually create something really good, but it doesn’t just flow right off of my “pen” (as in my keyboard). I love to write and I work hard to produce good work, but I am not a natural writer.

                I don’t even believe that “naturals” exist. I agree with Gladwell’s theory that it is practice and experience that makes you The Beatles or Steve Jobs, not some mysterious inclination for music or computers.  I believe that it is all hard work and dedication that makes you good at something. Some people are just skilled at making it look effortless.

Failure=Success?

                                   "Only those who dare to fail greatly can achieve greatly."
                                                                          - Robert F. Kennedy

       Michael Jordan is a pretty popular guy. In fact, a lot of people would say that he is the greatest basketball player ever. (a lot of people, as in every single boy on the playground at the elementary school I went to) So why on earth did he make a commercial about all the times he has failed? It's because Michael Jordan knows that he was by no means perfect. He knows how many times he had to pick himself off the floor and try again. He knows that if he had sat down on the bench after missing one of those game winning shots and said "I'm done", than he would never have gotten as far as he did.

                "I have failed over and over and over again.....and that is why I succeed."

Life is not an easy ride. You are pretty naive if you believe it is. The person who succeeds is the one who, like Michael Jordan, fails over and over again but never stops trying to get to the top. I did a little research and found that this formula for success (the whole "never give up" thing) works pretty well.

*Thomas Edison discovered 1,000 ways how to not make a lightbulb before he succeeded
*Winston Churchill failed the 6th grade
*Lucille Ball was told to "try any other profession" by her acting proffessor
*Freud was booed off the stage the first time he presented a theory
*27 publishers rejected Dr. Suess' first book
*Robert Sternberg got a C in his Intro to Psychology course
                  and how about a little sports?
*Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team
                                  (http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/efficacynotgiveup.html)

*Julie Andrews was told she "wasn't photogenic enough for film"
*J.K. Rowling's book "Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone" was rejected 12 times
*2 companies turned down Steve Jobs' offer to buy one of Apple's earliest computers
                                 (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120940892966150319.html)

These are just a few examples of people who took their failures and turned them into success because they never gave up. If you have a goal for yourself and you never give up, than you are unstoppable. Success is yours for the taking.  That is the message that Michael Jordan wanted to send in this video.
 I end this blog with one of my favorite quotes:

                    "Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."
                                                                           -Confucious

Marita's Bargain

"Outliers are those who have been given opportunities- and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them."
                                                                 -Outliers, Malcom Gladwell, pg 267

It is a lot to ask of a twelve year old to overcome problems such as those faced by Marita and her fellow KIPP classmates. Marita wakes up at 5:45 every morning in the one-bedroom apartment she shares with her mom in the Bronx, and is in class by 7:25. School will not get out untill 5:00, but leaving the school building does not bring freedom. Marita, a fifth grader, must stay up until 11:00 studying and doing homework. Unlike most American students, KIPP students go to school on Saturdays (9:00-1:00) and over the summer (8:00-2:00 in July). They take Critical Thinking, English, Math, Science, Social Studies, and Music classes and all students participate in the Orchestra. After school brings many activities such as "homework clubs, detention, and sports teams". You would think that the students who get the privilege of attending this school would be the children of elite New Yorkers and the brightest of the public school system, but you would be incorrect. Gaining admittance is a lottery for children who live in the Bronx. Classrooms are filled with low-income children from predominantly black and hispanic homes. They are faced with educational setbacks due to their economic status, but KIPP is their chance to overcome those obstacles. Playtime was over for Marita and her classmates the minute they first walked through the doors at KIPP. They have a lot to accomplish.
        
              One example of a problem faced by Marita and her classmates:
Summer vacation is a wonderful break from a long school year, but it probably does more damage than it does good for some students. Middle to Upper class students can learn a lot over the summer. They go to the zoo, plays and ballets, to museums, and have access to a multitude of learning resources. While students of Lower class families can have just as much fun as those students, they are not presented with the same amount of learning opportunuties. KIPP students like Marita have the chance to hurdle this incredibly unfair obstacle.
         
KIPP works.... Marita's bargain is that she has to mature well beyond her years and work harder than a high school or college student might have to work. In return, KIPP will help her out of the rut that her socioeconomic class is stuck in. According to the KIPP Academy website, over 85% of "KIPPsters" will go on to college. "KIPP Academy’s mission is to teach our students to develop the character and academic skills necessary to succeed in high school and college, to be self-sufficient, successful, and happy in the competitive world, and to build a better tomorrow for themselves and us all." I think that every single school in the U.S.A. should be this committed to the success of the students. Then maybe kids like Marita wouldn't have to be Outliers. I agree with Gladwell. It's not about new laptops, shiny new school buildings, or even about the IQ of the individual students. It's about the fact that KIPP gave Marita a chance to make it in this crazy and often unfair world, and Marita took that chance-and ran with it.

Although this is unrelated to the subject of the blog assignment, as a musican I felt obligated to point this out. KIPP students have music class for an hour twice a week and participate in Orchestra for an hour and a half every week. This means that the administrators and program cordinators of KIPP find music education to be essential to the successful student, which I agree with completely. Actually, it does kind of go with the assignment. I think that all schools across the country should include music classes in their curriculum. So there you go.... :)

The Ideal Student and Success

Much like the idea of success, everyone has their own personal opinion on what the ideal student is like. I think that these two ideas are correlated. The ideal student is one who knows where they want to go in life to be successful and works their hardest to achieve that version of success. They have set goals for themselves and don’t let anything stand in the way of what they want for themselves. There are the standard qualities of a good student that will frequently come up in this sort of discussion as well. They participate in class, are organized, do their homework, participate on campus outside of class, study, and other similar ideas that are important as well. I think that the important thing to remember is that success is defined by what you want it to be, and so is the ideal student. Regardless of a person’s GPA or IQ, if all they want in life is to manage the family restaurant, then they would believe that they were successful if they ended up managing the family restaurant. A different person might want to become the editor of a popular fashion magazine. If they ended up managing the family restaurant, would they find themselves successful? Of course not, because that isn’t what they wanted in their life. These two individuals would not have the same idea of what the ideal student was either. The restaurant manager’s plan would not work well for the fashion magazine editor, and vice versa. They are very different plans, but neither of them is necessarily right or wrong. In the end, both of them end up successful because they knew what they wanted and they went for it. They were ideal students because they accomplished their personal goals.