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School Defied Google and US Government, Let Boys Program White House Xmas Trees

theodp writes This holiday season, Google and the National Parks partnered to let girls program the White House Christmas tree lights. While the initiative earned kudos in Fast Company's 9 Giant Leaps For Women In Science and Technology In 2014, it also prompted an act of civil disobedience of sorts from St. Augustine of Canterbury School, which decided Google and the U.S. government wouldn't determine which of their kids would be allowed to participate in the coding event. "We decided to open it up to all our students, both boys and girls so that they could be a part of such an historic event, and have it be the kickoff to our Hour of Code week," explained Debra Knox, a technology teacher at St. Augustine.

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  1. The second link is absolute crap! by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 3, Informative
    I know it's not the style to read the articles, but the second link goes to a web site that shows a different story, and if you don't sign up, shoves you to their front page.

    Link bait.

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  2. Re:Congrats to the school, and mostly to the kids by Fwipp · · Score: 2, Informative

    You know that VAWA covers men, right?
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V...

    That seriously took me less than 15 seconds to find.

  3. Re:Considering how few boys graduate at ALL by the+phantom · · Score: 2, Informative

    It is a fairly well known problem that men and minorities are underrepresented in the teaching profession, particularly in the lower grades. If you were paying any attention at all to the teaching community, you would know that teacher education programs are trying to recruit and retain more men. A quick Google search to get you started...

  4. Re:Considering how few boys graduate at ALL by Shadow+of+Eternity · · Score: 5, Informative

    No, it's definitely teachers actively screwing boys. They're literally being graded worse just for being boys.

    --
    A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
  5. Re: Considering how few boys graduate at ALL by TimboJones · · Score: 3, Informative

    Just because one gender tends to populate a field doesn't mean something is actually broken or needs fixing.

    This is true, in general and abstractly.

    But in this case, the predominance of one gender in all STEM fields does indeed demonstrate that something is actually broken and needs fixing.

    Nature, science, and common sense show that while consensus provides great short-term efficiency, diversity is universally superior to monoculture in the long term. This is as true in the marketplace of ideas and the STEM fields as it is in the jungle or on the farm.

    There does indeed exist a systemic cultural bias pushing women out of technical fields. It exists as a thousand little things, none of which is individually morally incorrect, none of which ought be banned, all of which can be rationalized, all of which ought be examined thoughtfully. Correcting this bias requires not zeroing the bias -- highly unlikely and in fact not at all effective -- but a proactive encouragement toward diversity. To see this demonstrated mathematically, see: http://ncase.me/polygons/

  6. Re:Considering how few boys graduate at ALL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Care to list girls dominated STEM fields?

    Women are a majority of Bachelor's degree earners in Psychology (by far), Social Sciences, and Biology. They are close to even in Math and Statistics (45.9%), behind in Physical Sciences, Geo-Sciences, and really behind in Engineering (20.5%) and Computer Science (25.1%).

    Overall though, across all Science and Engineering fields, women are 50.4% of Bachelor's degree holders.

    source

  7. Re:Discrimination *is* discrimnation by Rockoon · · Score: 4, Informative

    By trying to exclude the boys from the team, Google and the Democrats are telling the world that it is okay to discriminate against the boys

    Discrimination is nothing new for the Democrats. When its not about color or sex, its about class. Always defining a divide. Always pitting groups against each other.

    --
    "His name was James Damore."