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Comment by carlmcqueen | Hacker News Reader

I see a big issue is that you were encouraging STEM activity at the high school level, there was likely a multitude of years where those same girls were pushed in other directions. I believe it has to start earlier and not as a forced thing but as an acceptable and encouraged and praised choice.

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That goes against the intent of the parents though. If a parent wants a child to go into some other non-STEM field, I don't see how anyone has the right to go against that by brainwashing kids into doing something else.

I agree and did not intend to say that there should be any force.

Around 2005-2006 when I hadn't changed majors to computer science yet and was student teaching middle school, there were still things being said to girls like 'its just more natural for boys' from older teachers.

It just didn't let them build the resilience up to work through the 'hard' aspects of math.

I thought about that after I wrote my comment. I only had them for one year in high school, so it's possible that they were subjected to years of other conditioning.

But, really, I have seen the exact opposite. Girls are actively encouraged to participate in math and science from a very early age in a lot of our schools.

I don't have any numbers on hand, but there seems to a drastic change in middle school where girls stop being interested in math and science. So by the time they get to high school, it seems like the fight for their interest is already over.

This is just my experience from being in education for several years.

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