----- Original Message ----- From: "Jon Gabriel" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2003 1:01 PM Subject: Re: Girls more confident of success
> >From: "Dan Minette" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >Reply-To: Killer Bs Discussion <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >Subject: Re: Girls more confident of success > >Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2003 12:36:17 -0500 > > > > > >----- Original Message ----- > >From: "Jan Coffey" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2003 11:53 AM > >Subject: RE: Girls more confident of success > > > > > > > > > > --- ritu <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > > > > Jan Coffey wrote: > > > > > > > > > BS > > > > > > > > > > what we are seeing is a focus by society on the things girls > > > > > are good at as > > > > > apposed to a focus by society at what the individual is good at. > > > > > > > > Are you saying that the curriculum has changed over the years or that > > > > girls are better at studying? > > > > And if you are saying neither of the above, then could you please > > > > explain what the remark meant in that particular context? :) > > > > > > > > > > Sure, Girls are better (as a group) at -memorizing- which is what is > >ment > >by > > > -studying-. > > > >Nah, studying is spending time on schoolwork. If one is studying a > >language, one does have to memorize vocabulary; there usually isn't enough > >classroom time to learn vocabulary in the context of how it is spoken. > >Although, after one gets to a certain point, one can learn vocabulary by > >reading the language. > > > >In any decent program, courses like history or English teach analytical > >skills. Tests such as the SAT do not test rote memorization, so the fact > >that girls do well on those tests indicates that more than rote > >memorization goes on. > > So you don't consider simply learning the meaning of vocabulary words to be > rote memorization? I can't memorize worth a hoot; and I have a fairly large vocabulary. The natural way to increase one's vocabulary is to read works by authors with wide vocabuaries, listen to people with large vocabularies, and use an extensive vocabulary in one's own writing and discussions. I remember when I was a kid, there was, in the back of our family dictionary, a vocabulary estimate based on the magazine one read (obviously one would chose the highest vocabulary if one read several. Reader's Digest was about 20k, Time was about 30k, and Amazing Stories topped the list at about 40k. I'm guessing that my vocabulary is actually shrinking now; but I think it was >50k at its peak. Less than 500 of those words were from vocabulary words in school. >There used to be (and probably still is) a large portion > of the SAT devoted to choosing the definition of a given vocabulary word. I just checked sample SAT tests, and they didn't have just a choose the definition section. Half of the sections were analyzing text; the other half were vocabulary related. The vocabulary related were either insert a word in a sentence or A:B as C:D, given A, B, C, choose D. I always did this analytically when it wasn't obvious from the first second. When it was self evident, the thought process was too fast to analyze. Dan M. > I'm not sure how (frex) knowing the meaning of 'panache' could be considered > analytic. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
