Girls and Physics. It's too hard for them. ?

I honestly had never heard of this person before.

She's decided to defend her position by giving an interview to Julia Hartley-Brewer , shouting a bit, missing the point entirely and digging herself an even bigger hole.

As I recall, the key takeaway from her address to a tory conference was her critique of discipline in schools. Her argument was that discipline was so generally poor that it stopped children learning. She started Michaela to 'prove' that children respond well to discipline and an orderly school frees them up to learn. As I said earlier, she is a highly contentious figure in the Education world.

I'm still interested in growstuff's earlier comment about her school's intake. I've seen her criticised for various things, but not that the school's 'success' may be due to its intake.

She started off as a French teacher. I remember seeing a video (I thinks she posted herself) on YouTube, demonstrating what a dynamic teacher she was. I can believe she was impressive as a class teacher, but so are many thousands of other teachers. It was an exercise in self-promotion. Apart from the school where she was deputy head, I don't know where else she taught.

Been trying to trace Ms Birbalsingh's teaching history but there seems to be no record of it. She starts a blog about teaching in 2007 but her first recorded job on Wiki is as deputy head. What was she doing beforehand?
I also realised one thing about girls, they actually contradict her mantra of test, test test and competition. Girls do best with continuous assessment. It's very naughty of them not to comply with her political views.

Ms Barbalsingh should forget the stereotypes. Many girls do love maths and physics. Oti Mbuse has a degree in structural engineering.

Chardy

Katharine Birbalsingh is a founder of Michaela Free School (2015) (so not an appointed head?), where pupils have to be silent in the corridor. Another founder is Tory Attorney General Suella Braverman.

She first came to national prominence in 2010 when, as a state school teacher, she spoke at the Conservative Party Conference, criticising UK's failed education system. She resigned soon afterwards.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XekkQ3HG2lg
She is believed to have influenced then Education Sec Michael Gove and his advisor Dominic Cummings.

Thanks for the link. Having listened to her I found a slight anomaly. She said she had taught at 5 schools during her 10 years as a teacher. Later she spoke of a boy and said she had taught him for 5 years. So she must have gone through 4 schools in 5 years which seems a bit rapid.
I noticed all the pupils she spoke about were boys as well, I wonder if she finds girls difficult to deal with. They do tend to challenge in different ways and are sometimes much better at seeing through hypocrisy.

My DGD has been accepted to study Maths, Physics and Further Maths at the best local sixth form and wants to be an Astrophysicist. She has not been told that girls don't study science but is just picking her favourite subjects. I thought the kind of prejudice shown by Ms Birbalsingh had disappeared.

It does give the best perspective volver

In the past many girls were brought up to expect to be supported in life by their husbands, and I suspect, saw no point in concentrating on 'difficult' subjects rather than ones they really enjoyed. Boys knew that they were going to have to earn their keep all their lives and probably support a family, so were more likely to knuckle down to difficult subjects, and get interested in them, because they would be the key to a secure and reasonably well paid career.

That's pretty similar to what Birbalsingh said, and it’s not correct, in my view.

Physics and maths aren’t hard. They just need people to pay attention. If the suggestion is that English, or French, or History are “easy”, then I don’t believe that’s the case. People don’t get interested in something after they knuckle down to it, they are interested in something and get on with it. But someone telling them its hard and they’ll have to knuckle down, makes it seem unattainable, so they go for something perceived to be “easier”.

varian’s mention of C P Snow is relevant. My friend across the corridor in Halls of Residence was studying English. She was always amazed that I had novels on my bookshelf along with the physics and maths books. And scientists are creative; you have to be creative to code, for instance. I think it’s a misconception that science is about learning the rules and churning them out over and over. And all scientists should strive to be disinterested Nannee49

I’d love to be a poet ? Unfortunately, in spite of my degrees in English, I don’t have the talent.

In the 1950s when I was at school, I could get into university to read English without maths, providing I had Latin and a science. I gave up maths at the age of 14, but my biology mark was as high as my arts subjects marks. I was relieved to give up maths, because I loathed it. I don’t regret it.

I’m not sure that these observations are relevant to the thread, but I wanted to add them.

Calistemon ?

I think she's confusing difficulty with disinterest.

If physics were properly taught - as Calistemin posted upthread ans MOnica above - with dynamism and enthusiasm it might spark more uptake, no pun intended.

In the 1950s I went to convent grammar school with an inspiring science teacher (female, nun), all our maths and science teachers were women, not all were nuns. The science 6th form (as it was then) was larger than average in girls schools and regularly had students gaining some of the highest marks in the country in physics and maths.

In the past many girls were brought up to expect to be supported in life by their husbands, and I suspect, saw no point in concentrating on 'difficult' subjects rather than ones they really enjoyed. Boys knew that they were going to have to earn their keep all their lives and probably support a family, so were more likely to knuckle down to difficult subjects, and get interested in them, because they would be the key to a secure and reasonably well paid career.

volver

Thanks for the link growstuff.

I as particularly interested in her view that poor or disadvantaged people do STEM. But better off ones do humanities because then they can become poets ?

That bit really made me squirm. The whole interview lacked coherence. Birbalsingh has a degree in French and philosophy and is the daughter of a university professor of English. That background has obviously served her well, but she really doesn't seem to be able to see the bigger picture at all. There's no reason why a scientist can't speak other languages or be creative. She seems to want to create young people in her image - and in a way she's decided.

Thanks for the link growstuff.

I as particularly interested in her view that poor or disadvantaged people do STEM. But better off ones do humanities because then they can become poets ?

Such outdated sweeping stereotypes have no place in education today. This person got her job by parroting what the government wanted to hear.

I've just watched the whole interview because I wanted to know for myself if what Birbalsingh was quoted as saying had been taken out of context:

parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/f1ed4b79-08a1-44ca-9321-cb467ab919dd

The interview was a car crash and she was inconsistent in what she said, much of which was about her school and herself and a lot of waffle. She avoided giving direct answers and it didn't seem to bother her at all that girls weren't opting for physics. On the contrary, she admitted that she encouraged pupils to study philosophy and humanities, which are her own interests. She used it as yet another opportunity to promote Michaela (her school).

Birbalsingh has been appointed as a national commissioner and I'm not convinced that she really understands the task in hand.

I sometimes say that I & my friends studied Physics at A level before anyone realised that girls weren't supposed to!
I was amused at my children's school open evening when the Physics teacher, discussing the subject, looked at my husband and said 'Did you do Physics at A-level?'. That was a female Physics teacher, assuming that I wouldn't have studied Physics!
I don't think we ought to be taking too much notice of Ms. Burbalsingh. Whenever I hear her talking about pupils in her school, she doesn't sound very respectful of them.

That's what I mean by her being one of the Tory darlings Chardy.

Katharine Birbalsingh is a founder of Michaela Free School (2015) (so not an appointed head?), where pupils have to be silent in the corridor. Another founder is Tory Attorney General Suella Braverman.

She first came to national prominence in 2010 when, as a state school teacher, she spoke at the Conservative Party Conference, criticising UK's failed education system. She resigned soon afterwards.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XekkQ3HG2lg
She is believed to have influenced then Education Sec Michael Gove and his advisor Dominic Cummings.

It's interesting that girls did better when the exams were dropped and teacher assessment was relied on during Covid. But the results in general don't reflect her views www.theguardian.com/education/2021/aug/10/a-level-results-top-5-data-takeaways

growstuff

Whoever is chosen, it needs to be somebody who doesn't rely on anecdotes and ideology, but is prepared to understand why girls aren't opting for science and maths rather than just accepting the "status quo". For goodness sake, Birbalsingh has been appointed to change things, not just shrug her shoulders and come up with ridiculous claims about physics being too hard.

Definitely Bell Burnell!

www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/decades-after-being-passed-over-nobel-jocelyn-bell-burnell-gets-her-due-180970248/

He's a chemist so obviously had chemistry

?

Callistemon21

But he's a man so it's obvious that he has a mathematical brain.

You mean he's calculated the forces needed to cross and uncross legs?