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From: zben@umcp-cs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.flame,net.women
Subject: Re: ET sex roles, request for clarification
Message-ID: <7035@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 14-May-84 14:27:56 EDT
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.7035
Posted: Mon May 14 14:27:56 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 16-May-84 07:22:14 EDT
Organization: Univ. of Maryland, Computer Science Dept.
Lines: 35

>>  I am certian that there will be those who will attack me
>>  for saying men are inherently better at math than women.  I have
>>  said no such thing nor do I hold this opinion.  There is simply
>>  insufficient evidence to do so.  However, I do not hold the
>>  opinion that the observed differences are due to "*training*".
>>  There is insufficient evidence to support this conclusion.

You got it, boobie....  "A hollow voice cries 'Ready on the range!'...".

Having just completed aiding a friend (and S.O.) through the first
semester of Calculus, I have to cry B.S. at the above analysis.  Let
me tell you that, as a tutor, it is a pure *joy* to work with someone
who has some aptitude for the subject, someone you don't have to leadd
by the hand, someone you can just point in the right direction and then
stand back and watch them work.  Yet this woman was just another victim
of "math anxiety", or social roles, or whatever makes the completely
socialized woman treat higher math with the same "euuw gross" with which
she treats "spiders and snakes".  Until together we came to the conclusion
that its "all right" to like math.

In this particular case I think the problem was her father, who I understand
was quite a mathemetician himself, and was perhaps a little too demanding
at a critical point in her childhood.

Now, I think this problem might come under the heading of "*training*"
as used above, but stating that there is "insufficient evidence" to
support this kind of conclusion is tantamount to admitting blindness.

Open your eyes, fool...

("Now make two copies, Gertrude, and file one in net.flames and 
  the other in net.women..."  :-)

-- 
Ben Cranston   ...seismo!umcp-cs!zben      zben@umd2.ARPA