…I’m still not sure what to make of it. Here’s a superbly trained teacher (specialty: getting girls interested in math and science) writing in Teacher Magazine about the role gender plays in classroom control issues:

 Research shows that many girls seem to grow up feeling that they get good grades or perform well due to luck, not skill or effort. By feeling this way, they also feel that any failure is internal and due to their lack of intelligence or ability. They personalize it. Boys seem to feel that failure is due to illness, poor instruction-external factors. These two different approaches lead to girls downplaying success and boys taking credit.

Cringing again? Me, too. In all my life, I don’t think I have ever taken credit for an achievement by saying, even to myself, “I earned that. I worked hard for that and I deserve it.” All children need to see that hard work and perseverance pay off.

Ok, read the entire thing, maybe several times. Here’s my hunch: The ”bridging the gap” headline must be an embrace of the thoroughly discredited AAUW line about boys dominating in school because teachers call on them all the time. And she seems to assume that girls, not boys, are the ones not doing well in school. Just a guess.

If that’s the case, then I assume being a teacher-in-residence at the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards is so demanding there’s no time to keep up to speed on state and national data about gender trends in K-12 schools.

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