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Are We Dumbing Down Our Girls?
“Jess”
The following is an actual account of one of my students
from the beginning of my teaching career.
Her name has been changed, but her story is true. Rather than being prescriptive about what actions
to take, I simply reflect on an event in my teaching career that had a big
impact on me and questions that it raises.
Jess was a cute, petite, blonde haired eighth grader, with
bright blue eyes and suntanned skin. All
of the boys in her gifted class were enamored by her. She, however, was not enamored with her
classwork. My team of teachers worked
together to create a rigorous and engaging interdisciplinary curriculum and
really pushed the gifted class to achieve.
Jess did just enough to get by, prompting one of the teachers on the
team to suggest that we move her to one of the “lower” classes. This, from a man who was an experienced
gifted teacher and strove to see the potential in every student; he simply did
not believe that this student had what it took to be in his gifted class. He put it quite bluntly one day saying that, “she
had no business being in a gifted class!”
Since Jess had qualified for gifted services in elementary school, she
was required to continue in the program, much to his annoyance.
Jess didn’t do much better in my class. She seemed to like to read and write topics
that interested her, but would produce less on topics that she was not
interested in. She didn’t participate in
class, and when she was called on, she answered in a high falsetto voice,
claiming that she did not “get it”. She
seemed to get a kick out of the exasperated reaction from her classmates. I tried my best to encourage her and help her
“get it”. Then one day, I saw her in a
completely different light…
The class was working on a challenging project. Jess announced loudly “I don’t get it!” All of a sudden there was a swarm boys
surrounding her, all vying for her attention to explain it to her practically
fighting over the change to help her.
Annoyed, I said, “Boys, sit down!
She doesn’t need your help, in fact, I bet she can teach all of you how
to do it!”
As they went back to their seats, I noticed the expression
on Jess’s face change---there was a flash of surprise, then she appeared to
size me up and a slight smirk appeared on her face. From that day on, Jess did all of my
assignments, earning among the highest grades, though she still did “average”
in the rest of her classes. I continued
to hear her other teachers complain that she did not belong in the gifted program,
and they were quite surprised to hear how well she was doing in my class.
At the end of the school year, the standardized test results
came in. The class as a whole did very
well, but one student in particular earned a perfect 5 on each test. Everyone-the students and teachers- were
shocked at who it was, expect for me…
I call it the “Pretty, Dumb Girl Effect”. It seems to happen around seventh or eighth
grade when girls are starting to become interested in getting attention from
boys. They quickly see that raising their
hands and asserting themselves in class is not the way to get the attention
they crave. Instead, they withdraw or,
as Jess did, adopt a new persona. Jess
did not want her teachers to know how smart she really was. She did not want to be “gifted” any
more. She wanted to fit in.
Since I “caught on” to Jess, she rewarded me by performing in
my class (but not enough to blow her “cover”).
It has been over a decade since Jess was in my class and I have met many
more girls like her. They hide their
intelligence to fit in. Their teachers
are “tricked”. Instead of being assigned
to classes based on their actual ability, they get placed by their teacher
recommendation into less rigorous classes because they “don’t have what it
takes”.
What can be done to “outsmart” the Pretty, Dumb Girl Effect? While teachers do not have the power to
change society’s expectations, we can change our own expectations. As an aside,
I used to hate the character, Penny, on the television show, The Big Bang Theory, for perpetuating
the Pretty Dumb Girl Effect, but over the years her character has become much
more multifaceted.
How do we recognize those students who may be hiding their intelligence? It is not about recognizing those particular students,
but having high expectations and encouraging ALL students. In this post, I specified a gifted girl-a
demographic that many believe is the highest risk of underperforming. Minority gifted girls are considered even more
at risk. It is widely documented that
there is a gender gap in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and
Mathematics) classes and jobs. One could argue that there is not a gender gap,
but perhaps an expectations gap. In the
book, Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg provides a vivid example of this as she tells of
the store, Gymboree, selling baby
clothing that read, “I am smart, like Daddy” for boys and, “I am pretty, like
Mommy” for girls.
I hope that the story of Jess will prompt teachers and
parents to reflect on their interactions with their girls in effort to reduce the
expectations gap. Often it is just
seeing the student in a new light that can make all the difference.
