This is the problem with the conclusion that mathematical ability is sex linked based upon the results viewed in society. As I said before, your logical conclusion is that math geeks are much more masculine than math-inept jocks. If that's your definition, then stand by it.
What I'm saying is that I want to see it proven before it becomes policy at universities or elsewhere. I want to see it proven on a biological level, not as a result of testing.
I want to know where in the brain basic mathematical ability resides and where in the brain mathematical genius resides. I want to know how those are linked to the sex of the individual and if they are related at all to environmental influences.
THAT would result in scientific conclusions that could reasonably affect education policy. I am quite sure that many people would happily base policy on the 'fact' that black and hispanic children are unable to graduate high school at the rate that caucasian and asian children are. I am sure that many of those people would happily equate this to broad genetic differences rather than to environmental influences.
We've been here before, listening to comments like these based on bigotry but without any scientific basis. Harvard produced George Bush as well, so just because it's Harvard's guy doesn't mean squat.
This author is interesting because he provides a different viewpoint, the importance of CHANCE and CIRCUMSTANCE on results. IMO, the importance of luck is really ignored by people who keep thinking that everything is about will. Much of life is about will but much of it is beyond our personal control.
He was on C-span recently talking about how the luck of geography affects the success of societies and how China is, already, the next global empire. He noted how the Sahara used to be a savannah until it became a desert which separated the continent in two. It's interesting how Europeans were able to colonize the lower temperate portion of Africa but not the hot center where their animals died and their crops failed.
It's not a complete explanation but it does make you think. There is more to 'success' in life than genetics and will.
========http://www.sciencedaily.com/cgi-bin/apf4/amazon_products_feed.cgi?Operation=ItemLookup&ItemId=0195183010
Over the next half century, the human population, divided by culture and economics and armed with weapons of mass destruction, will expand to nearly 9 billion people. Abrupt climate change may throw the global system into chaos; China will emerge as a superpower; and Islamic terrorism and insurgency will threaten vital American interests.
How can we understand these and other global challenges? Harm de Blij has a simple answer: by improving our understanding of the world's geography. De Blij demonstrates how geography's perspectives yield unique and penetrating insights into the interconnections that mark our shrinking world.
Centuries ago a surge of climate change halted China's maritime plans; more recently, environmental calamity altered the course of geopolitical events in East Asia; today, terrorists look for failed and malfunctioning states to base their operations--and some of these are in our own hemisphere. Preparing for climate change, averting a cold war with China, defeating terrorism: all of this requires geographic knowledge.
In Why Geography Matters, de Blij makes an urgent call to restore geography to America's educational curriculum. He shows how and why the U.S. has become the world's most geographically illiterate society of consequence--and demonstrates that this geographic illiteracy is a direct risk to America's national security. In this personal and engaging book, de Blij provides a geographer's perspective on the challenges of this new century.
As he states, 'We are crossing the threshold to a century that will witness massive environmental change, major population shifts, persistent civilizational conflicts [and] while geographic knowledge by itself cannot solve these problems, they will not be effectively approached without it.' |
