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Original poster

Girls can't do maths !

192 replies

Keepo · 05/02/2010 15:55

My dd (10) loves maths. However, she is now the only girl in top set for maths in her class. All of her friends tell her that she cannot be good at maths because she is a girl . The other boys tell her the same.

This week they had a maths enrichment lesson and only the boys in her set got to go. I went to talk to her teacher about this and she told me she assumed that dd would not want to go. I asked why and she said "well I thought english might be more her thing she is a girl". . Am I alone in finding this odd. This attitude is starting to grind dd down.

Are all schools like this about girls and maths ? To be fair it does seem to have only come up this year.

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DreamsInBinary · 07/02/2010 15:07

I went to a girls' school where it never crossed my mind that girls 'didn't do' maths. Which is just as well since I went on to do my degree in the subject.

Teachers make an incalcuable difference. I am apalled that your daughter has been told this. You should go to the Head first thing tomorrow, all guns blazing.

Good luck!

abdnhiker · 07/02/2010 15:53

Hi, I'm another math-type here, I've a BSc in physics and a PhD in numerical modelling stuff. On a practical note, does your daughter need encouragement? I'd be willing, and I'm sure lots of the rest of us would be too, to send her emails and participate in a sort of low-key mentoring thing.

boundaryRider · 07/02/2010 15:58

on your DD's behalf. Let her know that in my mathematical-modelling-of-biology lectures last week in Cambridge, that the class was 80% girls.... and the girls were the ones asking the intelligent questions...

slng · 07/02/2010 16:13

Female mathematician here too. My third year undergraduate class is more or less half boys and half girls. Complain about teacher. Gender stereotyping has never done anyone any good.

houseworkhater · 07/02/2010 16:22

Agree with everyone else.

What a silly thing for a teacher to be saying.

On a side note I am fed up of the implication that boys don't like writing.
Surely teachers should be promoting every subject to all.

mum2yum · 07/02/2010 17:04

Before becoming a 'stay-at-home-mum' I was a maths teacher and must say that the teacher's attitude is very surprising (and bang out of order!)
Follow it up and keep encouraging your daughter to pursue the things she loves and is good at

AitchTwoOhOneOh · 07/02/2010 17:18

looking forward to finding out what happens on monday, this really is shocking.

megonthemoon · 07/02/2010 17:35

Just adding my voice here, to give your DD that bit more support (she sounds great!) Headteacher must be told. Maybe your DD's friend's mum could also go in to say what her daughter has experienced and how it is making her less keen on maths and science.

I am so and .

I did maths A level - was at an all girls school so we were all encouraged to do what we wanted and maths was the biggest A level by far. I ended up deciding to do geography at university but actually use maths more now in my job and thinking of doing an OU maths degree for fun because it is so great.

Tell your DD that maths is probably the best subject you can do at school - gives you wonderful life skills as well as being an incredibly satisfying subject. I don't know any of my friends who ever regretted being good at and working hard at maths, but I know several friends (male and female) who wish they had spent more time on it

Flightattendant · 07/02/2010 17:39

My Gosh.

Nothing has changed since I was 11.

I was the only girl put in for a math contest at local private school...I think 1,000 pupils entered, and I saw about 3 girls in the final 100...I was joking to the boys from my school that I had won so they could all go home, funnily enough I had and there was another girl in 3rd place.

I really really thought your OP sounded like it happened 30 years ago.

Can't believe it.

GrendelsMum · 07/02/2010 17:43

No, I agree with the teacher. Girls just aren't good at maths.

So that must mean... I'm a man. Damn. I'll go and let DH know.

HappySeven · 07/02/2010 18:53

That is shocking and it is probably teachers with opinions like that that reduce the number of girls going on to study maths and science.

I was lucky and didn't suffer that and am now a physicist. In my year at university there were only 7 women and I was the only one who didn't achieve a 1st (only one man achieved it). It seems women have to be pretty good usually to be accepted as "good enough" and carry on with the subject which I find very sad - it can be hugely enjoyable and rewarding.

I hope your daughter continues to enjoy it and she gets a more enlightened teacher soon.

Ivykaty44 · 07/02/2010 19:12

That is sexual discrimination - I would put in a complaint to the head, this teacher needs to realise she/he cont discriminate like this. If it goes without anything being done - then he teacher will discriminate again

notanidea · 07/02/2010 19:15

I was not educated in this country and it is only here I am hearing that the girls are not good in maths, science etc., UTTER RUBBISH.My dd loves maths and is far better than any of the boys in the class. It is more to do with the child than with the gender.

NonnoMum · 07/02/2010 19:34

Think you need to take this up with the Head Teacher, if not the LEA.
It's ATTITUDE not APTITUDE that holds us women back (and girls!).

fluffles · 07/02/2010 20:16

that is shocking - i was the only girl in my higher physics class (though there were a few of us in maths) and it never bothered me. the boys became good friends.

at university maths was about 50/50 boys and girls but there were only about 5 girls in 50 boys for physics.

again, didn't bother me at all

tell your DD to do whatever subjects she wants to.

jicky · 07/02/2010 20:17

Unless all the girls who are seen as not good at maths are pretty able (and will still get level 5), or all the top boys aren't as able as they think (and so only get level 4 SATs) this attitude will cause problems for the school if the girls and boys have a big imbalance in results.

It does for the school I'm a governor at - more boys than girls get level 5 in maths and it is always something that is mentioned by the LEA.

I'm pretty certain that the idea girls can't do maths isn't coming from the school - the female teachers have previous careers that involved lots of maths. But every time it happens we have to justify it.

I would speak to the head and also the maths co-ordinator.

Miggsie · 07/02/2010 20:19

Our local girls school trounces the local boys school at GCSEs at all subjects...but I suspect the girl's teacher wasn't saying "now girls, can your little brains really cope with this? PErhaps you'd like to do some easy needlework?"

mnistooaddictive · 07/02/2010 20:54

As A maths teacher this makes me really angry. If she genuinely worried your daughter didn't want to go as the only girl she could have had a quiet word.
The teaching of Maths at primary school is LOADS better than hen I was at school but there are still some teachers who have poor Maths skills and this can cause problems.
Some info here on gited and talented stuff. They have chatrooms and she might be able to talk to other girls her age in similar situation.

Strix · 07/02/2010 20:55

I am "stuttering with outrage" as an earlier poster put it on your behalf. Sadly, these Victorian views have not been left in the Victorian era. I have the same problem at our school -- a COE school in West London. DD (year 2) gets quite a lot of this... well.. bullshit frankly. The teachers talk about it. The boys repeat it in the playgraound. And it ruins many girls' confindence in math. My reaction was to run off and sign up for Kumon because I believed that DD was never going to get the attention she needed at school. She now has a teacher who recognises that she actually likes math better than she likes English, and I am delighted. Our school encourage girls in English (which is good), so I leave that one to them. And I go out of my way to encourage math, partly because I think it is improtant, but more so because I won't havve told in year 2010 that the glass ceiling begins at age 6. FFS, how on earth can this be acceptable to so many?

releasethehounds · 07/02/2010 20:57

Have only read the first few posts so forgive me for repeating anyone, but your DD's teacher needs shooting for saying that! My DD (11) is one of the top 2 for Maths in her year - admittedly the other is a boy, but she tells me several girls are in the top set. She has been chosen by her school to attend Maths masterclasses at the end of this month along with the other boy.

DD is bright but she doesn't know it, and like a lot of girls, she often dumbs herself down and lacks confidence. This is why your DD's teacher's comment has incensed me - anything like that can have an effect on a girl's self-confidence; kids at that age believe everything teachers say must be right!

I would have to say something to the teacher. Why should your DD miss out on opportunities because of her gender? Madness.

webwiz · 07/02/2010 21:12

I would be quite worried by the attitude of the other children - the fact that the girls have already written themselves off as not good at Maths seems terrible in my view. There is obviously quite a bit of gender stereotyping going on and the school have a duty to overcome this not make it worse as this teacher is doing.

DD2 who is 16 is really good at maths and has never experienced anything other than encouraging teachers. She has always been at mixed schools and has certainly not come up against such outdated ideas. She got full marks in her KS2 Maths SATs papers, a level 8 in year 9 SATS and the top score in Maths GCSE in her school (98%) and is now doing Maths and Further Maths A levels. In fact she helps out quite a few of the boys when they can't do their homework (although I think one of the reasons they come looking for help is because she is very pretty ). If anyone dared to suggest that she couldn't be good at Maths because she was a girl she would give them a piece of her mind.

Wonderstuff · 07/02/2010 21:15

OMG. I was at an inset training a couple of years ago and the research shows that maths is the key indicator for earnings, more important than literacy, those without basic numeracy were amoungst the lowest earners and those with A-level Math were likely to out earn those with out it. By saying 'Maths is hard' and 'I'm no good at Maths' it undermines confidence and impacts life chances. Gender pay gap will only keep on increasing while women decide they 'don't do math'

abride · 07/02/2010 21:16

This is why we are bankrupting ourselves to send our daughter to an all-girls school. Most of her friends want to be doctors. They just don't get this kind of crap from teachers. It makes me so cross! My daughter is much better at maths than my son.

Grrhhhh.

Kaloki · 07/02/2010 21:33

Another one here who was top set at maths, along with all my (female) friends

releasethehounds · 07/02/2010 21:42

ArcticFox - just noticed your earlier post and I have to agree. My brother is Head of Maths at a selective boys' grammar school and he says the same as you; there is a stigma attached to not being able to read or write, but people will smile and happily admit to being 'rubbish' at Maths.

Although he now teaches mainly boys (a few girls as the sixth form is mixed) I have never heard him say either gender struggles with Maths more than the other, and he certainly encourages my DDs (both very good at Maths) in their achievements.

Still seething over OP's teacher.