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

?
I'm off to buy his book!!

(For my DGC!)

Callistemon
I know that if I’d had Bobby Seagull as my maths teacher I would have done better ( my results couldn’t have been worse ?)

Growstuff a bit like comparing apples and pairs. Per pupil funding for Birbalsingh's school is £5.5K +PP, NLC has fees of £22K per annum and won't have 40% eligible for free school meals or 60% who speak English as a second language. I totally agree though that having high expectations of children is key to their success but I think the girls at NLC have more advantages than just 4x the money going in to support their education.

I dont know if she is deluded but it sounds as if she hasnt given a great deal of critical thought to the influences that play a part on the learning of both girls and boys. Research shows that even in the womb knowing the sex of the baby influences how parents 'talk' to the baby pre birth.
I spend a lot of time looking at the issue of boys and reading, many of the solutions offered by education to that issue involve sourcing car books, superhero books etc. Very early on a talented headteacher told me he thought that was a mistaken approach as it still sends the message that reading as of itself is somehow not for boys. We cant underestimate the influence socialisation has on the ambitions of girls. And I am not at all surprised that the results are different in single sex schools.

If it’s true then it’s because they cannot see the relevance in real life, there are plenty of female physicists, not to mention accountants and other maths related careers, just like airline pilots not everyone aspires to do that

Utter rubbish.
All three of my DDs passed their Bac S, meaning majoring in Physics and Maths. One went on to be a translator and then on to teaching, second a high flyer in the world of commerce and third, although hampered by dyslexia, a physiotherapist.

My two eldest GDDs are doing the same.

In those days in France there was no choice, you couldn’t drop maths, physics, languages, history geography, sciences, sport etc. However, these days, I believe, a choice has to be made maths and physics which has caused a lot of problems for thé students

Joseanne

Baggs

Thanks for the contextuakl additions as well, joseanne. Context always matters.

Exactly, Baggs. I wasn't a clever Headmistress, far from it, but I won't have posters making fun of educationalists who obviously have their pupils' wellbeing at heart. That is what is important.

It depends how well mathematics is taught and whether or not it is made interesting or looked on as a chore, a subject that is necessary but boring.

I agree that everyone should build on their strengths.

Ms Birbalsingh tweeted:

Once again press takes one quote of mine out of context and everyone goes mad
I am not going to force our girls to do A level physics if they don’t want to do to it.

It is OK if we don’t have an exact gender balance in all subjects

That's good then, because more women than men are accepted into medical school.

She hasn't found it. In her own words.

I don't know. I can't say. I'm not an expert. That's what people say.

She is deluded. Sorry.

I am more worried about boys not doing literature and poetry. I know they are less commercially valuable subjects but, you know, there are other values.

( I don’t know any statistics abou this, but it is just what I observe.)

I’ve followed this teacher for years and if that’s what she’s found then so be it.

johnbald.typepad.com/language/support-katharine-birbalsingh/

Firstly, I've never heard of this lady before so I'm certainly not making fun of her as an educationalist. But she is seriously wrong. Very, very wrong indeed. I've been in STEM for 40+ years and the whole time we've been subject to this "it's not a girl's thing" claptrap.

What she said in context is the following: When asked why fewer girls take Physics than boys, she said that Research generally....people say that's a natural thing. Then a bit of waffle about I don't know, I'm not an expert
As for There's a lot of hard maths in there that they would rather not do.

I’m lost for words. Educator or not, that attitude is antediluvian.

And her comment about big numbers; if somebody said “Shakespeare? I don’t really understand it giggle." Would you expect that from a headmistress? No, but when it comes to numbers, anything goes. You're spot on Musicgirl.

(growstuff - note the tweeter )

twitter.com/chrischirp/status/1519293906227183616

The government's commissioner on social mobility
Good grief!

Where's Jeremy Corbyn when you need him? His mother must have been good at Maths because she taught chemistry (and
maths) in the 1950s and 1960s at an all-girls' school.

Have we gone backwards since then?

My mother is a mathematician and won a place to study maths at university. When she did A levels she had to go to the boys’ grammar school to do physics. This was in the fifties. By contrast, I found physics difficult at school but I found the mathematical equations the most logical and understandable. I quite like maths but was not good enough for A level. This report is taking us back to the dark ages. We are good at different things but it has nothing to do with our sex. Incidentally, one thing that really bugs our family is when people giggle and say that they are no good at maths as if it is something to be proud of. They would not giggle and tell us that we’re illiterate, would they?

I thought you ran a nursery and early years setting. You have indeed got that wrong. Not that it would make any difference to my adding my views.

Girls from single sex schools are two and half times more likely to study maths and physics at A level and go on to maths/physics degrees, which suggests there's gender bias.

Feminists were drawing attention to this in the 1970s!

Katherine Birbalsingh is a very contentious figure in the education community. It's Traditionalists v. Progressives all the way.

Interested in what you're saying about her intake, growstuff. Do you have a link or two to clarify? I'd always understood it to be pretty mixed, but it is a 'free school' so I suppose it could appeal to a certain kind of parent. The school's results are very good...

I think she means girls shouldn't feel compelled to take subjects they struggle with or find hard just because.
Far better to lead them to their natural choices than to drive them against their leanings. Not that I don't agree that many bright girls excel in these subjects.

Glorianny

The co-ed grammar school I went to believed much the same thing. Girls did arts subjects, boys did science. Amazing to see it still being expressed. Of course in some ways it is a self fulfilling prophecy, because the majority of maths and science teachers tend to be men. Which might explain the girls school anomaly But if she is the commissioner for social equality does this mean she thinks girls are somehow not equal?

Probably, as does Kemi Badenoch, the supposed Minister for Equalities.

Joseanne

Baggs

Thanks for the contextuakl additions as well, joseanne. Context always matters.

Exactly, Baggs. I wasn't a clever Headmistress, far from it, but I won't have posters making fun of educationalists who obviously have their pupils' wellbeing at heart. That is what is important.

I thought you ran a nursery and early years setting. Sorry if I've got that wrong. Nobody's making fun of Birbalsingh, but she's wrong.

Joseanne

But growstuff she is talking about her own school which is co - ed. She is referring to "our girls" and "they" means her pupils. She knows their wishes and their capabilities.

But she has a national role and should be talking about all girls.

Girls' school North London Collegiate had 368 A level entries in 2021. 195 (over half of them) were in maths, chemistry, biology, further maths or physics. There were 71 entries in maths alone (nearly all of them A*). That's what happens girls are encouraged to be aspirational.

The co-ed grammar school I went to believed much the same thing. Girls did arts subjects, boys did science. Amazing to see it still being expressed. Of course in some ways it is a self fulfilling prophecy, because the majority of maths and science teachers tend to be men. Which might explain the girls school anomaly But if she is the commissioner for social equality does this mean she thinks girls are somehow not equal?

But growstuff she is talking about her own school which is co - ed. She is referring to "our girls" and "they" means her pupils. She knows their wishes and their capabilities.

Baggs

Thanks for the contextuakl additions as well, joseanne. Context always matters.

Exactly, Baggs. I wasn't a clever Headmistress, far from it, but I won't have posters making fun of educationalists who obviously have their pupils' wellbeing at heart. That is what is important.

Joseanne

She's right. What's wrong with not doing the subject because they dislike it or find it hard? After GCSE pupils should choose the subjects they enjoy without feeling pressured.
I don't believe she doesn't know "how big a number 83 million is". She didn't say that. She was talking about the number of followers someone has on twitter and said, "I am not even sure what a number that big means…"in terms of whether the person is popular or not. The comment was made 2 days before the Physics/Maths one.
And just because she is a school Headmistress why would she know every subject inside out? Far more important to know every child's strengths and weaknesses and work on those.

No, she's not right.

Girls from single sex schools are two and half times more likely to study maths and physics at A level and go on to maths/physics degrees, which suggests there's gender bias.