The Michigan Daily - Friday, February 14, 1986 - Page 3
Girls stay away from
math despite good grades
By DEBBIE KOBAK
Women have succeeded in breaking
through many of the barriers in the
workplace over the last 20 years, but
what about the classroom?
A recent study conducted through
the University's Institute for Social
Research shows that women still tend
to stay away from mathematics and
related courses.
APPROXIMATELY 1,400 fifth
through twelfth graders in
southeastern lower Michigan were
asked questions concerning their at-
titudes about mathematics and other
subjects. Parents of the children were
given similar questionaires focusing
on their own math skills and
background.
Research investigator Allan
Wigfield said girls tended to be more
pessimistic about their math skills
than boys. The messages transmitted
to boys and girls from advertisemen-
ts, parents, and teachers as to what
subjects are more appropriate are
reflected in the girls' attitudes.
These messages are communicated
to a girl, feeding into her perception
about herself. The girls were actually
getting better grades, but still held
these attitudes." Wigfield said boys;
attitudes towards English were
similar to those of girls and math.
Both boys and girls became
somewhat more doubtful of their
math abilities as they got older though
girls expressed this fear earlier and
more strongly than boys, Wigfield
reported. He continued, "Our findings
are pointing up how children's at-
titudes and beliefs can influence their
performances and the choices they
make."
A RELATED ISR study that began
in 1983 focuses on the influence of
school environment in forming
students' self-confidence in math.
Although this data is currently being
processed, Wigfield said classroom
interaction between students and
teachers does not seem to be as strong
a determinant as other variables,
such as the student's gender.
The study did find that students felt
a decline in their abilities most
strongly between elementary and
junior high schools.
No official male-female ratio
enrollment records are kept in the
University's Mathematics Depar-
tment, administrative assistant Lee
Zukowski said. However, roughly 10
percent of the department's junior
faculty positions are filled by women.
MATH AND hard science courses
are stil regarded as somehow un-
feminne and women don't go into them
to the same degree, so by default
there are more men than women (in
these fields)," he said.
However, the numbers at the un-
dergraduate level are not as biased,
where approximately one out of every
four or five students is female;
Zukowski added.
LSA sophomore and physics major
Alan Stern said he has noticed fewer
women in upper-level math courses in
introductory classes. "There are very
few girls in my math class now. Out of
25-30 students, only five are women. I
know that there was more than a fifth
of women in math classes when I
began as a freshman."
LSA freshman Nina Boismiet
stressed cultural factors as the reason
behind women's lack of interest in
math.
"Over the years, men have been
programmed to go into math and
math-related fields, while women
have been programmed to stay away
from math. It's just the way we've
been taught, to lay back in math
because the men would take care of
it," she said.
Engineering junior Alex Garbuid
agreed with Boismier, "I think girls
are brought up with certain role
models and it's up to them to bream
them and do what they want to do.
Women are starting to realize it's just
as easy for them to be an engineer as
it is for a man."
THE DAILY
CLASSIFIEDS
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CALL 764-0557
Daily Photo by JOHN MUNSON
On with the show
Treasurer Kimberly Smith, LSA sophomore, sells tickets for the Bursley Show, while President John White,
LSA junior, blows up balloons in the background. Showtime is tomorrow at 8 p.m. in Bursley's west cafeteria.
'U' Council continues work on code
(Continued from Page 1)
for the council's hearings.
"THEY'LL (the boardmembers) be
taught, for example, that you can't
use evidence sombody got by
breaking into some guy's room," she
said.
"The rules (of evidence) are really
intricate and most of it wouldn't apply
to what we're dealing with," said Sue
Eklund, assistant dean of the law
school and one of three ad-
ministrators on the council.
Jonathan Rose, former director of
Student Legal Services and an obser-
ver to the council's proceedings,
yesterday opposed the rule waiver.
Rose said the lack of rules opened the
way for abuses by University ad-
ministrators trying to quell dissent on
campus.
"THEY'RE (the councilmembers)
good people, but they're creating a
zoo," Rose said.
Responding to councilmembers
claims that it's impossible to train
board members on the intricacies of
the rules used in courts of law, Rose
agreed saying it's one reason a code
should not be implemented.
"Threre 's no need for one, when you
can get an injunction against a
dangerous student within an hour,"
Rose said. The need to protect the
University community from
dangerous people allowed on campus
has been a key reason given by
University administrators for a code.
The University now has a series of
rules, but administrators have said
they are largely ineffective.
The University Council also agreed
yesterday that the accused should have
the right to an advisor, which may be
an attorney. Councilmembers
originally planned to require the
University to hire a lawyer for in-
digent students, but instead decided to
ask the regents to let Student Legal
Services lawyers advise students.
'Killing Field' hero finally receives U.S. citizenship
NEW YORK (AP) - Dith Pran,
whose ordeal in the Khmer Rouge
work camps of Cambodia inspired the
film "The Killing Fields," was sworn
in yesterday as a U.S. citizen, a move
he says will help his mission of
bringing peace to his native land.
"I'm glad I made it. My dream
Came true," he said to the judges,
immigration officials, news media
and 336 other citizens gathered in.
U.S. District Court in Brooklyn.
"Everybody likes to find freedom. I
have found it. I'm very grateful to the
people of United States of America."
DITH then said a phrase in his
1 native Khmer, which he translated as
"Long live freedom." The courtroom
resounded with applause.
After Cambodia fell to the com-
munist Khmer Rouge in 1975, Dith
spent years in labor camps, slaving 14
hours a day for a spoonful of rice. Any
Rice says
*LSA degree
is important
(Continued from Page 1)
programs. LSA students may
graduate with a Bachelor of Arts, a
Bachelor of Science, or a Bachelor of
General Studies. The latter does not
require that a major be declared.
Students may also elect an Individual
Concentration Program.
But Rice said it hardly matters
which degree a student graduates
with. "The cosmetic value of a degree
is not the key to a successful career,"
he said.
An LSA degree tells prospective
employers that "one has a broad
background of knowledge, the ability
Sto solve problems, and the means to
effectively persuade and com-
municate," Rice said. He added "The
University has the responsibility to
address and help students understand
the LSA education that they're ex-
periencing."
The purpose of an undergraduate
education is to "grow intellectually,
socially, and emotionally. And to
learn about as much as you can and as
many things as you can," Rice said.
Rice said the majority of students
change their majors several times
and to underscore the importance of a
diverse education Les Hayden, an
LSA sophomore who works as an
assistant at Career Planning and
Placement, spoke about his history of
changing majors.
Hayden said first he was pre-law,
then a history major, next he decided
he wanted to teach, and now he is in-
Sterested in social work.
knowledge of politics would have
guaranteed death, so Dith pretended
he had been a taxi driver before the
war, instead of translator and fac-
totum for then-New York Times
correspondent Sydney Schanberg.
"I make myself a quiet man, like a
Buddhist monk," he said later. Dith's
life was the basis of Schanberg's ar-
ticle "The Death and Life of Dith
Pran," which was adapted into the
Academy Award-winning movie
"The Killing Fields." The film ends
with Dith's escape to Thailand in 1979
and reunion with Schanberg, who had
spent years searching after Dith was
turned out of the French Embassy in
Phnom Penh because he did not have
a Western passport.
SCHANBERG was not present for
yesterday's ceremonies because he
was out of town, Dith said.
Their relationship, he said, is
"much closer than before. First he
was boss, then we became friends,
now we are like the same blood."
Today, Dith, 42, lives a quiet,
American-style life in a rambling
Victorian house in Brooklyn. Two of
his four children are in college; his
wife works at a bank. Dith works at
the Times as a photographer, but that
is only his job. More important, he
has a mission.
In his living room on a recent
evening, eating Cambodian spring
rolls and American potato chips, Dith
described his travels, trying to raise
money for the Cambodians who are
still starving and pleading for the
Vietnamese to relinquish control of
the Indochinese nation.
While the Khmer Rouge no longer
control the country, they and other
anti-Vietnamese military groups
carry out insurgent attacks from
remote bases. Civilians are often for-
ced to flee, and the result is that
250,000 Cambodians live in squalor
along theThai-Cambodian border.
Since the film's release, Dith has
hardly had a day off. His "weekends"
generally fall in the middle of the
week, and he almose always spends
them giving lectures to college
students around the country.
Even after years of American food
and medical care, Dith continues to
suffer: He has problems with his feet
and with the teeth he didn't lose to
malnutrition.
." t
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1306 S. University Ann Arbor 663-3345
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The Center for Western European Studies
announces the
SUMMER PROGRAM IN SEVILLE
JUNE 15 - JULY, 26, 1986
Classes in Spanish literature and linguistics, art history,
history or political science taught in English or Spanish
$1700 fee includes 6 upper-level credit hours of U-M tuitition,
lodging and some meals
For applications and further information, please
contact CWES, 5208 Angell Hall, 764-4311
A DAY WITH
JULIAN OF NORWICH
Saturday, February 15, 1986
10 A.M. to 4P.M.
CANTERBURY HOUSE
218 N. DIVISION, corner of Catherine
The life and teachings of this 14th Century English mystic will be
/l the focus of a day of exploration and reflection, led by Robert
Corin Morrin. The one-woman show, "JULIAN" will be per-
formed at St. Andrew's Church Saturday evening at 8 p.m. and
Sunday at 5 p.m.
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