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.

Comments

Considering how few boys graduate at ALL

[Shadow of Eternity]

they really should be reversing most of those programs. Girls are utterly dominating every aspect of education, including almost all STEM fields, to the point of being nearly 2/3rds of college graduates. At this point they're not "helping" girls, they're blatantly doing nothing more than sabotaging boys even further.

Re:Considering how few boys graduate at ALL

[_xeno_]

I only have my own personal anecdote, but I was the top boy in my highschool class by far. That didn't even get me into the top 10% of my class, though, since the top 10% were all girls. I think the only other boy in the honor society was a boy from the next year's class but I can't remember. (I know who the next highest boy in the school's ranking was but I don't remember whether or not he hit the cutoff for honor society.)

This was during the 90s in a public high school, so it wasn't like the population was simply unbalanced. This is hardly a new problem. Our education system simply doesn't engage with boys and hasn't for years at this point.

If you want links, though, it isn't hard to find them:

Itâ(TM)s Time to Worry: Boys Are Rapidly Falling Behind Girls in School
How to Make School Better for Boys: Start by acknowledging that boys are languishing while girls are succeeding.
Education: Boys Falling Behind Girls in Many Areas (Paywalled, so I have no idea what it says)

Those were just the top results on Google.

Re:Considering how few boys graduate at ALL

[Fwipp]

Boys are loosing in education a lot.

Clearly.

Re:Considering how few boys graduate at ALL

[thesupraman]

Dont forget the elephant in the corner, which is is OH so fashionable to ignore.

Who is teaching our children?

Really, especially in younger education, go and look at the male/female TEACHER ratio.

Any women claim they are unfairly treated in education? BS. They ARE education now, if they are unfairly treated it is by themselves.

It is boys that are getting hammered, by a even increasing demand of a feminised education system for them to conform to feminine standards.

Want equality? Show me the push for more men in teaching!

Re: Considering how few boys graduate at ALL

[retchdog]

uh, yeah, i've had extensive elite education in STEM, in the US. it's mostly a sausage fest. statistics will back this up and, no, they're not fabricated by teh feminist conspiracy.

i have to conclude that anyone who's bitterly complaining about women having taken over STEM is just a delusional loser who probably just couldn't hack it.

Re:Considering how few boys graduate at ALL

[Shadow of Eternity]

Nerd culture isn't remotely plagued by sexism, it's one of the least sexist cultures out there. That's nothing more than the latest straw man in a long line of straw man invented by bullies to justify shitting all over nerds as the root of all evil. A hundred years ago pinball made people alcoholics and gamblers, thirty years ago D&D made people worship satan and molest children, ten years ago videogames made people violent, and today it's the misogyny-apocalypse on the internet.

Meanwhile actual female nerds say the opposite, and are promptly called "house ni**ers" and doxed by the latest round of hipsters who've found a new target for their bullying and mendacious handwringing.

Re:Considering how few boys graduate at ALL

[Shadow of Eternity]

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

Re: Considering how few boys graduate at ALL

[shaitand]

I'd have to agree it's a sausage fest but I've seen zero indication it's for any reason beyond a lack of interest on the part of females.

Just because one gender tends to populate a field doesn't mean something is actually broken or needs fixing. A gender agnostic field should be built around what works best to advance that field not attempts to appeal to or advance a gender.

Re:Considering how few boys graduate at ALL

[Shadow of Eternity]

Women are within 5% of parity in Math, Statistics, and the Physical Sciences three years ago. They're nearly SIXTY PERCENT of all biology graduates and at least that many if not a full 2/3rds or more of fucking EVERYTHING else.

The only one changing the subject here is you and the other shameless FUD spreaders trying to wave a red herring like CompSci that's only 10% of conferred degrees. You're a bunch of mendacious dissemblers screaming "pay no attention to literally every measure of academic success and every other degree out there, look only at our dishonest cherry picked outliers!".

It is an indisputable fact that women absolutely DOMINATE every aspect of the US education system from start to finish and top to bottom. There is no disparity anywhere in the education system which FAVORS men, only disparities ranging from profound to catastrophic which harm them, and it's disgusting that this is still not enough for people like you. It's not fucking derailing to point this out on a news story specifically about boys being openly thrown to the wolves.

Re: Considering how few boys graduate at ALL

[NoKaOi]

uh, yeah, i've had extensive elite education in STEM, in the US. it's mostly a sausage fest. statistics will back this up and, no, they're not fabricated by teh feminist conspiracy.

I agree, but that sure as hell doesn't give them the right to be sexist, and disallow certain people from participating based solely on their gender. The Civil Rights Act, which has been law for 50 years, specifically disallows it. Just because it's in favor of a minority doesn't change it. And they weren't just favoring girls in cases where otherwise the merit was equal (affirmative action), they were specifically disallowing boys.

How would people feel if the sentence had instead read: "This holiday season, Google and the National Parks partnered to let boys program the White House Christmas tree lights," and instead they banned girls from participating? How is one direction of sexism moral, ethical, and legal, if the other isn't?

Re: Considering how few boys graduate at ALL

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, and the fact that most teachers are women demonstrates that indeed something is actually broken and needs fixing.
Also, most nurses are female, such a monoculture cannot be healthy. And most garbagemen are men, and surprisingly nobody tries to change that name into garbagehumans.
The problem is, how do we measure what the actual problem is? What is the non-broken ratio of the sexes? And how do You know that it is 50-50? If it wasn't 50-50, how would we know? If less women apply, how can we know the reasons for it -- is it the sex bias of the employers, or is it a free choice of the individual?

Re:Considering how few boys graduate at ALL

[Rockoon]

I agree that it is a problem that males are under-represented in many subject areas, but that doesn't mean that the under-representation of women in CS isn't a problem as well.

No, thats exactly what it means in spite of your claim that it isn't. The onus is on you to show that a problem actually exists, much like the onus was on those that claimed that females are favored to provide citations (which they did.)

This is how it works. Really. I guess the education system screwed you out of knowing that.

Re: Considering how few boys graduate at ALL

[Ol Olsoc]

uh, yeah, i've had extensive elite education in STEM, in the US. it's mostly a sausage fest. statistics will back this up and, no, they're not fabricated by teh feminist conspiracy.

i have to conclude that anyone who's bitterly complaining about women having taken over STEM is just a delusional loser who probably just couldn't hack it.

The Veterinary field might be a better example of female dominance. And amazingly enough, that dominance is blamed on men being sexist discriminating pigs.

http://www.justvetdata.com/mee...

http://veterinarybusiness.dvm3...

But wait, if 80 percent of veterinarians are women, is it the men (who are claimed to be "running away from female dominated fields" somehow responsible for the lower pay and greater debt of the 80 percent? Jesus Christ, if 8 out of ten people in a room are female, at some point you might try not blaming the 2 guys for every problem. Better stop at 99 percent so you'll have at least one guy left to blame.

Something doesn't quite compute. One might be able to make an alternative speculation that a lot of women simply do not like men.

Congrats to the school, and mostly to the kids

[argStyopa]

...for their terrific job and a wonderful tree display.

And kudos also to the admins with the balls to tell the administration and Google to fuck off with their politically-correct bullshit.

Re:Congrats to the school, and mostly to the kids

[LordLucless]

Christmas trees are non-Christian Christmas decorations. They were imported into Christmas from the pagan Yule festival. Christian decorations would be crosses, crucifixes or nativity scenes.

Discrimination *is* discrimnation

[Anonymous Coward]

Whether you like it or not, discrimination against boys is discrimination

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

Re:Discrimination *is* discrimnation

[Rockoon]

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.

Bogus and Sexist Programs

[pubwvj]

These "Girls Only" programs are bogus and sexist. If they did it "Boys Only" there would be cries of discrimination and lawsuits. It is illegal to do sexual discrimination yet our government does it over and over "Girls Only." Time to cut the crap.

Dear Ms. Knox

[Tokolosh]

Thank you for restoring my faith.

You have:
1. Showed that discrimination is not cool.
2. That disobedience is sometimes appropriate.

These are most valuable lessons,

I look forward to the day when there is gender parity among teaching staff at all public schools.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Makes things worse

[ShaunC]

We do need more women in the tech field

Why? Honest question.

No one seems to be up in arms over women being underrepresented as, say, firefighters or airline pilots. No one's pushing men to become hair stylists or librarians. Yet millions and millions of dollars are being spent on exclusionary girls-only events like this, telling girls that they must learn to code. I don't get it. What's wrong with just encouraging kids, whatever genitalia they have, to follow their interests, whatever those may be? If a girl is into tech, or a boy is into makeup, encourage them to pursue those careers and bust up the stereotypes. I don't find sense in telling girls they need to be in the tech field, any more than telling boys they need to grow up and be cosmetologists.

Re:Climate means men won't teach

[dwywit]

The "climate", as you use the term, is a big problem, and it worried me when my kids started school. We chose to send them to a private primary school (neo-humanist), and get involved. I've been a classroom helper with specialised tutoring in IT and making/editing videos, helping out in the cafeteria, etc for 11 years now, and my youngest child has just finished there.

I took a big cut in annual income to be able to work the sort of hours that allowed my participation, but it's brought the benefits. My kids are fit & healthy - the cafeteria doesn't carry junk food, period - it's all freshly made, and although lunches from home are encouraged, they have to meet certain standards - no packs of crisps, no "muesli bars", no packaged sweets, no cup noodles, etc. The kids are allowed bare feet, allowed to climb trees, and swim in the creek at the school. The local public high school teachers that these kids end up with have consistently praised the amount self-reliance and maturity of kids from this school.

I'm also well-known to the teachers, staff & other parents (especially the others that are into participation), and that's a valuable reputation. I've never had problems with parents leaving their children here for sleepovers, and vice versa - I trust my children's friends' parents. The seventh-grade teacher (female) once left me alone in charge of the whole class for an hour while she went home to collect some materials she'd forgotten.

Get involved, people - even it you have to take a pay cut to do it. Change the climate, and start with yourself.