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Told reading tests are a game, boys score higher

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Re: Told reading tests are a game, boys score higher

#141

Post by YeGoblynQueenne »

spectrum1234 wrote: post #60
jokoon wrote: post #21

I'm a man and I really dislike competitive aspects of society. I mean if I'm playing a game and it's for fun, I'm okay with it, as long as everyone play to play, not play to win. If I'm literally competing to earn a living, or if it ends up in praising winners and blaming losers, it won't be enjoyable, and I'd rather not play at all. Having humility also means that when you win, you also congratulate losers for playi…

Like or dislike, you would be the first to die in 99% of societies, human or otherwise. This may get downvoted but don't shoot the messenger. You can't "hate" something that just "is".

Some people may downvote you for asking not to be downvoted, mind.

Re: Told reading tests are a game, boys score higher

#142

Post by andrewflnr »

rfrey wrote: post #23
jokoon wrote: post #21

I'm a man and I really dislike competitive aspects of society. I mean if I'm playing a game and it's for fun, I'm okay with it, as long as everyone play to play, not play to win. If I'm literally competing to earn a living, or if it ends up in praising winners and blaming losers, it won't be enjoyable, and I'd rather not play at all. Having humility also means that when you win, you also congratulate losers for playi…

"Overall, I sense that men avoid competition much more than women do." That's interesting, and seems a bit contrarian. If you felt like elaborating, I'd feel like listening.

I don't know if it's a general trend, but men potentially have more to lose in a contest in terms of self- and other-esteem. As a man, I tend to either avoid competitions I don't have a decent chance of winning, or if there's some other compelling reason to join, consciously decouple my pride from the outcome. Otherwise I take it too personally.

Re: Told reading tests are a game, boys score higher

#143

Post by YeGoblynQueenne »

jrapdx3 wrote: post #133
DanBC wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We have spent many years trying to present gender-neutral environments to our children. [...] > This was before school My son's favourite colour before he started daycare was pink. That rapidly got policed out of him by other children and disappointingly by staff in day care. We persevered - "anyone can like any colour; boys can have pink as their favourite colour, girls can have blue as their favourite colour" and…

Possibly a bit tangential to the discussion, but there's some chance the "pink vs. blue" convention has a biological basis in respect to male/female color vision differences. For example, red-green color blindness affects about 7% of males, and There's also intriguing if incomplete evidence that among humans with normal color vision, females are more likely to have finer color discrimination ability in the yellow-ora…

>> there's some chance the "pink vs. blue" convention has a biological basis

That makes no sense to me. I'm Greek and in my neck of the woods boys and girls are not expected to wear specific colours, at least not when I was growing up.

If you do a search for Greek traditional dress you'll notice that the colours that dominate are white, black, red and some shade of brown, but they are both pretty much equally distributed between men and women.

That's empirical and maybe someone somewhere has a proper data'd study that contradicts me but you really won't find anyone who can point to examples of pink dominating women's traditional dress in Greece.

I believe the same goes for other cultures. Every time I see the traditional ornamentation of people from the Amazon, or sub-Saharan Africa for instance, vivid bright colours seem to dominate for both sexes. If I think of South-East Asian traditional dress, I get an impression of oranges, yellows, and reds for the women (who do tend to wear the most colourful stuff).

And there's nowhere a shade of pink to be found.

So I think this blue vs pink thing is definitely a cultural phenomenon and that it's really just affecting specific parts of the world.

Re: Told reading tests are a game, boys score higher

#144

Post by andrewflnr »

2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #95
RodericDay wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are being patronizing, though. Cordelia Fine, who does psychological research on this, has a great anecdote about this entire line of argument- the nonsexist parent who tried to do gender neutral parenting, comically failed, and then realized boys and girls truly are different, and now campaigns from the opposite perspective. She brings up one such anecdote from another book, where parents really tried to give th…

>> Of course, the mom was the one tucking the girl to bed almost every night. So why did the daughter, given fire trucks and dolls , tuck in the fire trucks instead of the dolls?

Actually, it's not clear from the given story whether she was also tucking in the dolls. That wouldn't surprise me.

(not a parent, but I've seen little kids do some pretty goofy things)

Re: Told reading tests are a game, boys score higher

#145

Post by CapitalistCartr »

fullshark wrote: post #131
CapitalistCartr wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Teachers talk in class when they shouldn't. "Hey Teacher, how much is the curve on this test gonna be?" "Well, it won't be anything because John got a 100." [Angry glares at John]

This idea contradicts the OPs' theory.

I don't think so. If the teacher announces everyone's grade formally, it makes it clear grade is important. If the teacher only points out the"Special" student that always does the best in every class, it becomes a miserable experience. And I assure you this part isn't an idea.

Re: Told reading tests are a game, boys score higher

#146

Post by bobwaycott »

meddlepal wrote: post #115
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hm Im an American (and a Nerd) and that doesn't sound at all right to me. The N word is used to denigrate anyone who does well academically. Its used to shore up self-image for those that don't do well I imagine - "Sure Joe is great at this subject but that's Nerdy so Ha! I'm superior to him" There was never any need to brag, to be called a Nerd. Just score well, and the bullies would whisper (and yell in the hall) N…

How did the bullies know Joe did well if he didn't brag?

Participation. Always having the right answers. Helping others. Spying the grades when papers are handed back. Never complaining about low grades. Showing no signs of stress or worry about exams. Asking questions for more information not already discussed or immediately relevant to the topic under consideration. The way a student carries on conversation. Being asked what grade s/he earned and divulging that information.

I went through many schools as a child. I never bragged about my grades. Everyone always picked up on me being a straight-A student very quickly.

Re: Told reading tests are a game, boys score higher

#147

Post by bobwaycott »

dragontamer wrote: post #129
meddlepal wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did the bullies know Joe did well if he didn't brag?

You go to a school where the grades are read out loud or published in some form. This isn't unique to the Middle East. Its often no secret who the valedictorian of your class will be in my experience (American school)... even if the grades weren't revealed. In any case, "Nerd" in my experience means something closer to the hobbies you persue. "Geeks" play video games and academically do good in "computer stuff" and m…

> The intersection of "Nerds" and "Geeks" is anime, comic book heroes, and sci-fi.

Don't forget diminished desirability by those in whom one has a romantic interest (at least until well after adolescence). :)

Re: Told reading tests are a game, boys score higher

#148

Post by iopq »

mabbo wrote: post #137
iopq wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not how you count sample size. If there were four "classes" of one million boys and girls, does it still make the sample size four?

I think I'm not stating my point very well. Apologies for that. The problem with saying that n=80 is that it presumes each 'test' (student evaluated) was chosen for their treatment independently of each other. This is clearly not true, as entire classes were chosen together. So any variable like 'actually this happens to be the gifted class' can throw the whole study up or down because that variable was not independe…

That's not a sample size, that's called bias. The sample size is still 80, but it could be potentially a biased sample.

Re: Told reading tests are a game, boys score higher

#149

Post by Natanael_L »

iopq wrote: post #136
pasquinelli wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

well, dominating the competition can be the result of avoiding it.

You don't dominate chess by avoiding playing chess, that's for sure.

"The only winning move is not to play."

Recognize the quote?

Re: Told reading tests are a game, boys score higher

#150

Post by zardgiv »

moultano wrote: post #118
Volt wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What sample size would satisfy you?

Replication.

How long have you been saving up this one-word response? Because the parent was addressing a complaint about small sample size, and basic reading comprehension would show you that your response was off-topic and did not logically follow.
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