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The most interesting part of the article ot me was the discussion of income in the workplace in contrast to the performance in school. They point out that women

The most interesting part of the article ot me was the discussion of income in the workplace in contrast to the performance in school. They point out that women tend to select subjects in college that result in less income and that they seem to care less about that. I wonder how much of that attitude results in the income difference between men and women. I also believe that some of the behavior typically associated with boys and their bad performance in school leads to them succeeding in the workplace. Trying to be in control and showing typical alpha-male behavior causes nothing but trouble in school. In the workplace on the other hand,it's something that might lead to some conflict, but also to higher income. On the flip side, following orders diligently is great in school and leads to a stable career, but you might lose out to the pushy alpha-male. Obviously like pretty much everything on this topic, those are very broad generalizations, that are not indicative of any one individuals behavior.

VLM 12y ago
All true, but aside from risk, school has little relationship to modern workplaces. The public school system was designed to squirt out interchangeable cogs for the regimented institutionalized factory / sweatshop workplace with the ability to act as cannon fodder as military industrial complex profits dictate. That workplace is dead in this country other than blue collar style criminality (WRT entering for-profit prisons). There is the interesting analogy of high school study hall vs open office concept. Nothing ever got done in study hall other than goofing around and socializing. Real job (aka not an open office) of a higher social status are more like the silent study tanks at uni or studying at home (office job as opposed to open office)
stared 12y ago
"The average 15-year-old girl devotes five-and-a-half hours a week to homework, an hour more than the average boy, who spends more time playing video games and trawling the internet." I think it shouldn't be underestimated when it comes to gender gap in tech. The sad (and short) story is that a lot of teaching is uncoupled from the future career life. Vide http://xkcd.com/519/ http://xkcd.com/519/
deleted 12y ago
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brador 12y ago
Note that the article does not do a breakdown by subject, an interesting ommission. It is possible that the data might show girls out performing boys because they are taking easier courses, so in aggregate it looks like they're ahead, since a high grade in $hardsubject is taken as equivalent to a high grade in $easysubject. Hard to know without the data to analyse for this.

VLM 12y ago

All true, but aside from risk, school has little relationship to modern workplaces. The public school system was designed to squirt out interchangeable cogs for the regimented institutionalized factory / sweatshop workplace with the ability to act as cannon fodder as military industrial complex profits dictate. That workplace is dead in this country other than blue collar style criminality (WRT entering for-profit prisons). There is the interesting analogy of high school study hall vs open office concept. Nothing ever got done in study hall other than goofing around and socializing. Real job (aka not an open office) of a higher social status are more like the silent study tanks at uni or studying at home (office job as opposed to open office)

stared 12y ago

"The average 15-year-old girl devotes five-and-a-half hours a week to homework, an hour more than the average boy, who spends more time playing video games and trawling the internet." I think it shouldn't be underestimated when it comes to gender gap in tech. The sad (and short) story is that a lot of teaching is uncoupled from the future career life. Vide http://xkcd.com/519/ http://xkcd.com/519/

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

brador 12y ago

Note that the article does not do a breakdown by subject, an interesting ommission. It is possible that the data might show girls out performing boys because they are taking easier courses, so in aggregate it looks like they're ahead, since a high grade in $hardsubject is taken as equivalent to a high grade in $easysubject. Hard to know without the data to analyse for this.