-> SK>A few years ago (maybe five?) one of our teachers (a nun)
-> commented to SK>me that a girl at our school would never run for ASB
-> president, and even SK>if she did, the student body would never elect
-> a girl for that position. SK>Secretary or Treasurer, sure. Maybe even
-> Vice Pres, but not President.
-> In our schools roughly 70% of all organizational officers are girls,
-> including classes, clubs and student council.  Our valedictorians and
-> salutatorians have all been girls for the past 3 years.  Is it
-> cultural (NY Vs. Calif.?),  or is it a product of private school vs.
-> public, or some other factor?
I think you miss the point I was making by lumping all the girls into
one big group.
We have a large number of girls involved in extra-curricular clubs,
organizations and so forth as well. I'm sure the majority of students in
the ASB program (which involves homeroom represenatitives, class
officers, and appointed commissioners, literally a couple hundred
students) are girls. But who is the _president_?
I think we can observe similar phenomenon in our own government. There
are more and more women holding political office these days, and a
number of state governors and senators and congresspersons (? sounds
silly?) are now women. But, it seems to me that even today, although
things are changing, a presidential candidate would have an automatic
disadvantage built in if she were a woman. A significant number of
citizens would be disinclined to vote for a candidate for president who
was a woman.
I merely bring that up to illustrate my point, as I don't want to get
off onto a discussion in general about women and their status in
society, etc...
I do think there are inequities still, though, and that these types of
things are still noticeable in todays schools. I don't think so much
that teachers are promoting such inequities (as Dal Jensco has pointed
out, there is some speculation and controversy about research which
claims that teachers call on boys more often and so forth), but that
because children are not raised in a vacuum, they bring some of
societies expectations and constraints with them into the classroom and
this can affect what goes on at school.
How do girls at our school perform academically? Very well. I would
guess they are on a par with the boys, or perhaps even doing better.
This past school year, our top three ranked students in the graduating
senior class were all girls, our valedictorian and our salutatorian were
both girls as well.
Why do we have few girls run for and be elected to the office of ASB
president? Could it be a Calif vs. NY or private vs. Public school
phenomenon? perhaps. I don't have enough info to really speculate either
to support or contradict that. I would be less inclined to think it is
private vs. public school, and more likely to think it could be a
geographic thing.
-> SK>to be read out in homeroom) either this past year or the year
-> before. It SK>requested that those interested in being a Stat Girl
-> for some sport team SK>(I don't recall which) report to a meeting at
-> such and such time and SK>place.
-> Interesting, the difference in our experiences.  When I was in high
-> school (early 50's), I kept stats for both our wrestling team and
-> basketball teams.  It was pretty common for those cut from the teams
-> to be offered positions as statisticians or helpers (I wasn't much of
-> an athlete ).
There are a few of the boys teams that do have boy stat keepers. The
varsity basketball team is one such team, and I believe it is someone
who was "cut" from the team.
Sheila
s
--- PCBoard (R) v15.22/M 10
---------------