The article that the whole class was asked to read was titled "From the Achievement Gap to the Education Debt: Understanding Achievement in U.S. Schools" by Gloria Ladson-Billings and seemed to be written for researchers. It seems to me that the article is written for researchers because it talks about a popular, significant topic in educational research and why it exists. This article was also published in the Educational Researcher, a journal for researchers.
The article our gender group chose to read was "The Myth of Pink & Blue Brains" by Lise Eliot. I think that the Eliot article seemed more geared towards educators and parents because it provided background information for why the gender gap exists and gave suggestions for closing the gap.
The assumption that Ladson-Billings makes is that the achievement gap is caused by overall inequality. She discusses the historical ,economic, sociopolitical, and moral debts that all add up to the educational debt. She states that, while it may seem impossible, it is necessary for us as a country to look at all of the factors that affect the achievement gap and work hard to close it.
I found it surprising that Ladson-Billings says that slavery, something that happened so long ago, could affect the education of African Americans today. I just don't think about the past having such a strong effect on children's current educational success.
The assumption that Eliot makes is that the gender gap can be closed by treating boys and girls more equally from birth. We tend to treat boys and girls very differently and this behavior is what creates the gender gap.
I know that boys and girls engage in different types of play, mostly conditioned by the adults in their lives, but I had never thought about the effect that could have on their future educational success. The thing I found most surprising was the fact that playing catch and racing games are the types of activities that increase boys spatial awareness skills. This tells me that taking girls outside to play catch on a regular basis instead of encouraging them to play with dolls all of the time could help them score better in math.
Resources
Eliot, L. (2010). The Myth of Pink & Blue Brains. Educational Leadership.
Ladson-Billings. G. (2006). From the Achievement Gap to the Education Debt: Understanding Achievement in U.S. Schools. Educational Researcher.
Listening to one of the recent This American Life radio programs, I learned yet another piece of racism that originated from federal government policy from almost 100 years ago that severely affects what happens today. Maybe you should check it out, it's about housing discrimination. It's a kind of Vygotskian and/or Bronfenbrenner kind of thing--the influence of environment is huge.
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