Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 25, 1991 TAG: 9102250258
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SHARON SCHUSTER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Unfortunately, if this debate resembles the education debates of the past decade, it will continue to ignore the 51 percent of those whose futures are shaped by the schools: America's women and girls.
The failure to include girls in the education-reform debate threatens America's economic future at a time when our ability to compete on the world market depends on making use of the talents of all our people - not only white men but also women, African-Americans, Hispanics and Asian-Americans who will account for fully four-fifths of the new entrants to the labor force by the year 2000.
A growing number of education experts agree that schools have a problem with gender bias - different ways of treating girls and boys that send them very different signals about what they're capable of doing and what's expected of them.
To learn more about what happens to girls during their school-age years - and to hear girls explain for themselves how they see their lives, their worlds and their futures - the American Association of University Women conducted a study of boys and girls between grades 4 and 10. Working with the survey-research firm of Greenberg-Lake: The Analysis Group, we surveyed 3,000 children across the country and conducted focus-group discussions with groups of girls and boys.
What we learned confirmed many of the most alarming conclusions of the education experts about how girls and boys are steered onto different paths during the passage from childhood to adulthood - and also provided a new perspective on the sources and consequences of adolescents' self-esteem.
While adolescence is a difficult time for all young people, it takes a heavier toll on girls than boys. Young girls are aggressive, assertive and eager to learn. But all too often, they emerge from adolescence with a diminished sense of their abilities, their futures, and their worth as individuals. While 60 percent of elementary-school girls say they are pleased with themselves, only 29 percent of high-school girls (compared with 46 percent of high-school boys) offer the same expression of fundamental self-esteem.
The drop in girls' self-esteem has ripple effects that affect their interests, their ambitions and their actions. An overwhelming majority of girls and boys like math and science when they are young, but as girls' self-esteem levels decline more rapidly than boys', so do their own perception of their abilities and interest in math and science. By high school, only one in seven girls - compared with one in four boys - say they are good at math. Similarly, girls as they grow older show less confidence in their capacity to be good at science and, therefore, less interest in it.
Unlike the world of Bart Simpson, the surveys show that parents and teachers still matter. Confounding popular preconceptions that young people get their ideas from their peers, the survey found that parents, teachers and other adult authority-figures have the greatest impact on adolescents' self-esteem and aspirations. When authoritative adults, particularly teachers, have less faith in girls' abilities to master difficult subjects, girls tend to lose faith in themselves.
Thus, the survey found girls are much less likely than boys to believe their career dreams will come true - and much more likely to say they're not "smart enough" or "good enough" for their dream careers.
These findings amplify the sense of urgency emerging from the work of the education experts who warn our schools are shortchanging our girls.
The quiet crisis in girls' educational achievement is a matter not only of social justice but of economic survival. By the year 2000, women will account for two out of three new entrants to the labor force. For our economy to retain whatever remains of its competitive edge, many more women will have to be educated to become tomorrow's scientists, engineers, computer professionals and specialists in every high-skill, high-technology occupation.
Clearly, our educational system is going to have to do a better job - a much better job - at educating and encouraging our girls. How our schools can do a better job for girls should be at the center of the great American education debate, and it should be a priority for Lamar Alexander as he takes charge of this debate.
The lesson is inescapable: A school system that fails to bring out the best in 51 percent of its students is a school system that fails to provide for our country's future.
\ AUTHOR NOTE: Sharon Schuster, of Los Angeles, is president of the American Association of University Women.
by CNB