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Opinion
Tuesday, April 19, 1994
The Battalion Editorial Board
JULI PHILLIPS, Editor in chief
MICHAEL PLUMER, Managing editor KYLE BURNETT, Aggielife editor
BELINDA BLANCARTE, Night news editor DENA DIZDAR, Aggielite editor
HEATHER WINCH, Night News editor SEAN FRERKINC, Sports editor
TONI GARRARD CLAY, Opinion editor WILLIAM HARRISON, Photo editor
JENNIFER SMITH, City editor
The Battalion
Page 11
Equal opportunity by gender division
Overcome stereotypes with single sex math, science classes
f^Von’t get me wrong, I love my major. I’ve classrooms. He said, “Previously, the girls barely
iSlil
- , I HI
Gleaning house
Gun sweeps right on target
President Clinton recently
announced plans to ask tenant
associations to include a
mandatory clause in public
housing leases that would allow
warrantless gun searches. This
latest policy is in response to a
federal judge’s ruling that the
Chicago Housing Authority had
violated the Constitution in
conducting sweep searches
without warrants.
In an attempt to avoid fur
ther constitutional violations,
standard clauses will be added
to tenant leases which give con
sent to searches for unautho-
hied firearms.
Under this plan, warrantless
searches fKvill be allowed when
there is justification but no
time to obtain a search warrant.
Also included in the plan are
weapons frisks of suspicious
persons and routine searches of
common areas or unoccupied
apartments.
At a time when it is not un
common for drug dealers to
purchase guns and run drug
operations that earn as much as
530,000 every day, this plan is
not overly drastic. A forceful
step toward allowing citizens to
take back their homes and stop
living in constant fear for their
lives and that of their children
cannot come too soon.
Tenants will be given the
choice of signing a lease that
includes the clause or finding
alternative living conditions.
Innocent children and families
trying to build their lives to
gether have to live in these pro
jects. They deserve the right to
live without fear of being shot
because they were in the wrong
place at the wrong time just by
being at home. The tenants
have the choice to vote for
these measures to be instilled;
no one is forcing them to do
anything they don t want to.
For years politicians have de
bated the constitutionality of
gun control. The people in the
public housing projects don’t
have to debate, they see what
guns do to families every day.
D on’t get me wrong, I love my major. I’ve
always felt that reading and writing was
what I did well, so it never really bothered
me that I wasn’t as comfortable doing math or
studying scientific subjects.
I felt this way during high school and my first
two years of college. Then I came to A&M and at
tended a calculus help session at the Center for
Academic Enhancement. I got excited about math
and made an ‘A’ in the first math class I had taken
in four years. It certainly wasn’t something I was
expecting ... after all, I couldn’t do math. Who
woulda thunk it?
And now I am taking my last science class, and
I love it. Why did it take until my senior year at
A8dvl to think of science as something I could en
joy?
Well, because I am a product of American pub
lic education. Though my math and science
teachers were nice men, I knew that I wasn’t “ex
pected” to do well in those subjects. After all, I
had English and music and like subjects. I didn’t
need physics.
I had female friends who did excel in mathe
matics. Both of them loved science, too. But for
most of us, diose advanced science and math
classes simply weren’t a part of our high school
plan.
I have discovered my high school was no
anomaly. In schools across our country, females
arc eliminated from the pool of students who ex
cel in math and science. While there are excep
tions, more men than women take and do well in
those subjects. And yet there is no evidence that
men are smarter than women, so why die dispari
ty in participation in diese subjects?
In a recent survey of liigh school students, only
one girl in seven said she considered herself good
at math, while one in four boys considered him
self to be good at it. It was also discovered that
ERIN
HILL
Columnist
boys assumed girls performed at a lower level than
they did. Bodi sexes believed it was more useful
for males to know mathematics dian females.
It doesn’t help that in many classrooms girls are
invisible. According to a stud)’ by the American
Association of University' Women, teachers praise
and criticize men more, as if their academic expe
riences are more valuable, while girls are “merely
acknowledged.” This favoring of male students
sends die message that “women’s lives count for
less dian men’s.’
A byproduct of public education is fewer num
bers of women going into science-related fields.
Though women make up 44 percent of die labor
force, only 13 percent or scientists and engineers
are women. At A&M the college of Engineering
has 7, 801 men and 1, 644 women, which means
tilings won’t be changing much around diese
parts.
In the ‘80s, someone noticed that most of the
female college students majoring in sciences and
mathematics came from women s colleges. Some
one decided to investigate.
They discovered that in Germany, 60 percent of
female science and chemistry students came from
all-girl’s schools, especially interesting because
only 4 percent of die high schools are all-girl.
In Westerland, Germany, one of die teachers
was asked about die success of these single gender
classrooms. He said, “Previously, the girls barely
participated in physics classes. They have more
confidence now.” He also said that in his mixed
gender class, not one girl raised her hand to ask
questions or give answers.
In single gender classrooms, females feel more
comfortable asking questions and taking risks.
They do not have to compete against males for the
teacher’s attention, which is good since studies
show that males receive die lion’s share of atten
tion from teachers.
Ventura High School and Anacapa Middle
School in Los Angeles, and Marin Academy in San
Francisco implemented this type of classroom,
and not only did the standardized test scores of
their women students rise dramatically, but 64
percent of females said they ’’liked math.” (Of die
males, 7 1 percent said the same.) You can be as
sured that this percentage won’t be found in tradi
tional schools.
Evelyn Flory, the principal of Marin Academy,
said die single gender classes are very popular
electives. The females in them are more likely to
take on leadership roles and to work together on
problems.
It is for these reasons - higher test scores, im
proved subject mastery and better academic expe
riences for females — that we ought to implement
single gender classrooms in mathematics and sci
ence on a national level. The gender specific
stereotypes we carry around about what girls can
and cannot do exist in part because of the way
classrooms are currently run. Getting rid of those
mixed gender classes may help eliminate stereo
types.
Some may cry segregation, but if the end result
is equal oppomuiity and achievement, how can
we complain?
Erin Hill is a senior English major
^viTvifar! thk hurt*
v \c V\0'G Til Ah ir UUKrs
tMM.
Editorials appearing in The
Battalion reflect the views of the
editorial board. They do not
necessarily reflect the opinions of
other Battalion staff members, the
Texas A&M student body, regents,
administration, faculty or staff.
Columns, guest columns,
cartoons and letters express the
opinions of the authors.
The Battalion encourages letters
to the editor and will print as
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must be 300 words or less and
include the author's name, class,
and phone number.
We reserve the right to edit
letters and guest columns for
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Contact the opinion editor for
information on submitting guest
columns.
Address letters to:
The Battalion - Mail Call
013 Reed McDonald
Mail stop 1111
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College Station, TX 7/843
Fax: (409) 845-2647
Naming that tune can lead to all sorts of problems
T here I was in my statistics test try
ing to remember P-values and con
fidence intervals when my mind
decided it wanted to remember some
jimmy Buffett lyrics.
was in the middle of the definition
part of the test when my mind stopped
and started singing the end of “He Went
to Paris.” I’ve done poorly on many tests
through the years because of this talent.
I can still remember the first time my
mind winked out on me. It was my sixth
grade history class and we were identify
ing countries and continents on our six-
weeks test.
"Suckers walk, money talks but it can’t
touch my three lock box ...”
The exam was a breeze until I got to
Asia. After marking my answer, I started
singing a song by the rock group Asia,
which made me remember the early days
of MTV. I then spent the next 30 minutes
trying to recall the original MTV veejays.
"Let’s see. You got Martha Quinn, Mark
Goodman, J.J. Jackson, that Adam guy -
but who’s that other one?”
Needless to say, I didn’t do very well
DAVE
WINDER
Columnist
because I spent all my time trying to re
member that veejay’s name.
Mom: “David, how could you make a
63 on this test? Geography is your best
subject.
Me: “It’s not my fault though, Mom.
You can blame it all Nina Blackwood.”
Mom: “Who in the world is Nina
Blackwood?”
Dad: “She’s one of the original MTV
veejays. Don’t you know anything
woman? Say, Dave, what’s that Adam guy’s
last name?”
“She wore a raspberry beret, the kind
you find in a second-hand store ...”
That was just the first instance.
Through the years I can remember
putting words from Led Zeppelin on
English tests and Beatles lines on science
exams. Needless to say my teachers were
not amused.
“David, your answers are not cute. By
the way, you misspelled “Goo Goo
G’Joob” on number 17.”
“Old McDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O.
And on that farm he had some ducks ...”
After that I spent countless hours try
ing to rid myself of my lyric ability. I tried
hypnosis, psychosis and “Brady Bunch”
reruns, but nothing seemed to work until
I tried putting my notes into song.
It made studying for my geometry test
easj/ at first.
‘Perimeter is adding all sides,
Area is length times wides. Sha la la la”
(Guitar solo).
It worked pretty well for that stuff, but
I ended up failing the test anyway. I was
up half the night trying to figure out
words that rhyme with “quadrilateral”
and “rhombus.”
“Nobody wants to get high on the
town and all my rowdy friends have set
tled down ...”
My friends started to notice my prob
lem and decided to do something to
help. After an eternity of begging, they
got our English teacher to sing our vo
cabulary words.
The exam was a breeze
until I got to Asia. After
marking my answer, I
started singing a song by
the rock group Asia,
which made me remember
the early days of MTV.
At first she was shy, but by the time
she got to the word “sonorous,” she was
roaring like Ethel Merman. When she
finished the list, we gave her such a
standing ovation she gave us five more
words for an encore. I still failed the test
though.
Alter I graduated, my talent kind of
tapered off, but for my first test in col
lege it was back in full force. I decided
to counter by reciting the chorus of
every song I knew about an hour before
the test started.
“My ’98 boomin’ with a trunk of
funk all the jealous punks can’t stop my
dunks ...”
I was doing great until about mid-way
through the test, when my mind began to
ask questions.
Did I do song number four on Marley’s
“Legend” album?
Did I sing the dance party mix or the
extended version of that stupid “In
former” song?
If I ever turn this into a column, will it
have a point?
“You put your right foot in, you take
your right foot out. You put your right
foot in and you shake it all about ...’
Tm starting to learn that my “sickness”
is just never going to go away. No matter
what I do, it’s going to be there, whether
I like it or not. I just wish it would let me
change the stations.
Dave Winder is a sophomore journalism major
K
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I
N
. >
!>
T
Support Mom and
Pop establishments
I would like to make a few com
ments concerning the column recently
written by Melissa Megliola on the
Mom and Pop businesses. I found it re
freshing to realize that there may be
some people who can see what is hap
pening in the business world. The small
business person is literally a dying
breed, and it is basically the consumer
who is hastening their demise.
As a restaurant owner, I have seen
this first-hand in our community. For
some reason unknown to me, the
chains have some sort of magnetism
that attracts customers. Is it the adver
tising, the decor, the menu, the ambi
ence that prevails when people gather?
Or is it the food quality and the low
prices? I think not!
As a family-owned business, my wife
and I make every attempt to meet the
needs of our customers. Yet, no matter
what the price or how good the food
is, people like variety and don’t mind
paying the price for that variety. One
day a customer may patronize our es
tablishment; the next day that same
person may go to another restaurant
and pay considerably more for the same
.items. Does that seem to make a differ
ence to the customer? In my opinion,
it doesn’t.
Sometimes I wonder to myself why I
make such an effort to give the cus
tomer the best possible value for their
money spent. Does it matter to the cus
tomers? Do they even notice? Do they
ever question the prices on the menu at
the chains? Or ask themselves, how
much am I really getting for my mon
ey? Again, I think not.
So, if anyone reading this has any as
pirations of owning their own business,
give it some thought. Maybe someday
everyone will work for some huge con
glomerate that knows them only by
number and when it comes time to cut
costs, they just dispense with a few
numbers. Perhaps this is little extreme,
but I hope you can understand the
principle behind what I am talking
about.
As this semester draws to a close and
many of you go to your summer jobs,
lake a good look at your workplace and
how it is run. And make a conscious ef
fort to compare the Mom and Pop busi
nesses with the chains, because the fu
ture belongs to you. Someday you may
be a Mom and Pop business!
Jim McGuire
Owner, Cow Hop Restaurant
Aggie Ring Dance
does not require ring
I would like to clear up a few myths
about Fightin’ Texas Aggie Ring Dance.
I was very surprised when several
members of the Class of ‘94 told me
they are not planning on attending Ring
Dance because they haven’t received
their rings.
Ring Dance is certainly a celebration
of this treasured Aggie tradition, but it
encompasses much more than just the
Aggie ring. The true focus of Ring
Dance is the camaraderie we’ve shared
through our years at Texas A&M. All
Aggies who have their rings are invited
to attend, as well as all members of the
class of ‘94. After all, the entire Senior
Weekend is funded by the Class of ‘94.
I personally will not receive my ring
until this summer, and I do not want
others in my situation to miss out on
this wonderful tradition.
Another misconception is that only
seniors can attend these events. In fact,
seniors can invite anyone to accompany
them. Dates need not be seniors or even
students.
I hope that everyone will join us
during Senior Weekend this year. Many
people have put long hours into making
this year’s Senior Weekend the best ever.
Katie Nichols
Ring Dance Co-Chair, Class of ‘94