The Tribune did a great feature on an all girls Chicago Public High School today. This school is preparing girls to work in predominantly male professions, such as Engineering and Science. I thought this quote by one of the students was great:
"In other schools, boys mostly answer all the questions and do all the talking in class, and the only thing the girls care about is looking cute for the boys," said Jenaun Armstrong, 18, a senior who plans to major in acting when she starts at Tennessee State University in the fall."At ‘Y-Dub,' we speak up, and we don't have to worry about the boys doing all the talking."
I agree with Jenaun. In my high school, most girls' only goal was to find a boyfriend. I remember one girl in my senior economics class saying her motivation for coming to school every day was to talk to boys. I remember thinking that was stupid, but now that I know about sexism in the education system, I realize that girls are conditioned to think this way as soon as they reach junior high. In my Women in Contemporary America course in College, I read a great article about what it would be like if girl's and boy's roles in the schools were switched. I'll find it and post it at another time.
I remember very vividly my second grade teacher, Mrs. Burnham, saying to me "girls are not good at math, so it's ok if you need extra help." I believe I was about 8 at the time. I also remember being told that boys were better and math, science and social science and that girls were better at reading and writing. This was in the early 1990's! Were any girls encouraged to take math or science courses?
This girl is cool and way smarter than I was at 18:
"I grew up in a single-parent household, so there wasn't much motivation to go to college. If not for ‘Y-Dub,' I might have gotten pregnant and dropped out of high school and struggled to make a living, maybe working at a retail store," said Clanton, who attends Harold Washington College and will transfer to the University of Chicago next year to study elementary education.
I think this school is great, but I don't think there should be more single sex schools. Girls should be given more encouragement and motivation by the public school systems. Some anti-feminists insist this is happening and that boys are being neglected. This is not the case at all. What's happening is that girls are finally being given a chance to exceed and they are just happening to out-succeed their male peers. I don't think boys will ever be neglected in the public school systems. I think it's a likely as football programs being cut.
Reading this article cheered me up and gave me hope for future generations of girls.
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