> > > The book includes horoscopes, testimonials, cute doodles and quotes > from girls. Word problems are brought to life with descriptions of > lipstick, beads, cookies and similarly girly examples that might make > the feminist in some women cringe.
Maybe they use recipes to explain fractions Take 1/5 kg sugar, 1/3 l milk blah blah At one level - I am glad someone recognizes that children need a push towards maths without scaring the hell out of them. But at another level... the problem with girls isn't so much about "not liking" maths - as opposed to teacher-student interaction in classrooms - teachers tend to teach girls mathematics differently. It's not about subject relevance - as it is about the lack of faith in the student's ability. And very often - this is irrespective of the teacher's sex, or the institution being coed/ single sex. I remember reading once about teachers' impatience with students depending on the student's sex. For instance - if a boy has trouble solving a problem, the teacher urges him to go through it step by step - providing some guidance - but not actually solving. With girls, the teacher is more likely to just show how it is solved - without urging the child to actually "think through" the problem. The whole "copy steps from blackboard" scenario. By class 6, the child who "copies" solutions is so used to not thinking through them - that she severely lags behind - and that inability to cope reaches its peak when calculus starts. (Usually Class 10/11) At first I was a little dismissive of this explanation - but looking back - I can't help but wonder how true it was. To be fair though, I've always felt that this bias was even more evident in Delhi than Madras. (the two places where I experienced being taught maths at a junior level.) -- Neha Viswanathan +44(0) 77695 65886 London, UK http://withinandwithout.com | http://globalvoicesonline.org
