Posted by finelinebob on May 9, 2004, at 15:59:35
In reply to Re: Re: Bellyaching etal, posted by Racer on May 9, 2004, at 15:20:24
> Thank you very much for bringing up some really interesting ideas, and doing so with so many fewer words than it takes me ;-D
What?! Me, concise?!
In a past life (prior to 09/2000), I was an educational psychologist and science educator, so the gender issue with teaching science is very familiar. Valerie Lee at Michigan has done some studies showing through both statistical analyses of large data sets and more ethnographic studies of particular classrooms that (1) there is a great deal of evidence supporting the idea that girls learn science better in single-sex classrooms, and (2) a lot of that has to do with how boys take over discussions of scientific topics and how teachers, male and female, support this behavior of shutting off girls and encouraging the boys without realizing it.
I don't know if I'd call rationality an "artificial" construct, but it certainly is a cultural construct. In fact, it may be the defining construct of "Western" culture: Cogito ergo sum. The mind is separate from the body. The mind is rational, the body isn't. Thoughts are of the rational mind, emotions are of the animal brain. Rene Descartes may have caused more damage wrestling with his "evil demon" than the rest of our demons combined.
Oops ... sorry, you've got me Hermeneutics all hot and bothered! If you folks want to experience pain, just try reading Heidegger and Habermas! OUCH! If someone ever suggests trying to be philosophical about your pain, reading Gadamer is NOT what they mean!
flb
poster:finelinebob
thread:344965
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20040503/msgs/345125.html