Interesting Fact of the Day
"Among the 19 students who got a perfect score on the ACT science test in the past two decades, 18 were boys."
~John Tierney in today's NY Times
Q: Does that mean that Larry Summers can get his job back as president of Harvard University? After all, according to Tierney, Dr. Summers merely suggested that a tenured physicist or mathematicians at a top university "might well need skills and traits found in only one person in 10,000: the top 0.01% of the population, a tiny group that would presumably include more men because it’s at the extreme right tail of the distribution curve."
In other words, if male professors greatly outnumber female professors in the math or physics department at Harvard or Yale, it might be because boys outnumber girls by 18:1 for perfect scores on the ACT science exam. Stated differently, why should we expect perfect gender equity in the math or physics departments at Harvard or Yale, when boys get almost 95% of the perfect scores on the ACT science exam?
9 Comments:
“Q: Does that mean that Larry Summers can get his job back as president of Harvard University?”
NO.
However, Larry would fit in well as president at My Sister of the Worthless Miracle U. You know…..the home of the Fighting Keynesians and their mascot “Multiplier”.
“…why should we expect perfect gender equity in the math or physics departments at Harvard or Yale, when boys get almost 95% of the perfect scores on the ACT science exam? “
YES and NO.
Yes, expect gender equity if you love the dogma of “the way things ought to be”. No, if you understand Thomas Sowell’s essays on fairness.
You would think that with all we know about human evolution, these gender equity types would realize men and women are different. With just a quick glance at a woman, it's obvious that her body is designed to birth, feed, and carry tots. Men are clearly designed for other purposes. It shouldn't be the least bit surprising that men and women would think differently.
The busybodies need to grow up and get better educated in critical thinking.
That doesn't prove men are inherently smarter. It may only reflect men spend more time on science, for whatever reasons.
Albert Einstein didn't comb his hair, wear socks, and looked like a slob most of the time. Of course, women wouldn't look that way, with the exception of a few feminists.
Shall I be the first to get my panties in a twist about the unfairness of the ACT?
Ahhh W.E. Heasley, that was an excellent comment sir!
Truly excellent!
The NYT *comments* section was VERY telling (and predictable): waah what about the POVERTY?!!! It's because of PRE-7th GRADE DISCRIMINATION! It's because of the lack of GENDER ENCOURAGEMENT! Other faves: the SAT is biased/not an aptitude test/not for young'uns...
It's just. too. funny.
Hieronymys
Didn't Larry Summers resign and then receive a prestigious and highly paid chair at Harvard before he left?
@PeakTrader
I'm not quite sure what you point is. I don't think anyone is making the point on sex is smarter.
Driving is a good example. Men are vector orientated. Drive west 10 miles North 5. Women are landmark base. Drive to the walmart, turn right and drive to you reach the library.
Everyone gets to the same place, they just used their thought process differently.
There maybe more men in science because the process of science matches men thinking.
When boys want to apply themselves they can excel.
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