Shireen, my project was an all girls' project and my current school is an
all
girl's school. In re-reading my message, I mistakenly made it sound like
the
work I do at the school is in the field of CS, which isn't accurate.
Technically, I'm the Humanities Teacher. And, yes, there is a huge
difference
between how girls learn in single sex environments vs how they learn in
co-ed
situations. That's why the AAUW was purposely and mindfully geared towards
girls in the LA Unified School District and girls only. I know that my
girls
at school now are way more empowered and confident about their capabilities
than many girls in traditional schools. These kids are blessed for the
opportunity.
However, when I still worked in the LAUSD, I was in a classroom where the
gender breakdown was 17 boys 6 girls. In that classroom we had one
computer
and those girls were fierce about getting access to it so they could use
math
games and to send e-mail. So I don't know if it is as hopeless as it
seems.
>From what I've seen, I'd second what Carol said that girls like the
communicative aspect of the internet and therefore they might find the net
more
appealing than traditional coding. One of the many reasons why there are
fewer women computer engineers is that 20 years ago, there wasn't an
internet.
My male peers have been coding since they were 13. At 13, I was a gymnast,
a
writer, an avid photographer and a gossipy kid. I would have loved the
internet then because there would have been an outlet, be it digital
photography, a place to publish, etc. I didn't start coding in HTML and
teaching myself Java until I turned 25. So those boys had a full 12 years
up
on me learning the ins and outs of syntax and code. Perhaps, with the
internet
as such a huge draw, there will be more girls in the future.
I still contend though, I'd like to see less consumption of prepackaged
software and more thought put into how to get girls to take command and to
code.
Kat Gullo
<kat@girlsms.org>
The Girls' Middle School
www.girlsms.org
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Fri Apr 12 2002 - 15:16:50 EDT