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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- There are plenty of girls who can compete with the boys when it comes to math, but due to cultural and societal factors, most of them are turning away from their talents.
Whats more, boys appear to be falling victim to some of the same pressures.
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Those are the key findings from a new study led by Janet Mertz, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of oncology. According to the report, both boys and girls -- but especially girls -- are suffering from the low respect given to mathematics in the U.S.
The U.S. culture that is discouraging girls is also discouraging boys, Mertz was quoted as saying. The situation is becoming urgent. The data show that a majority of the top young mathematicians in this country were not born here.
For example, statistics indicate 80 percent of female and 60 percent of male faculty hired by top American university math departments in recent years were foreign-born.
Co-author Joseph A. Gallian, a professor of mathematics at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, likens the situation to our countrys current dependence on foreign oil. Just as there is concern about the U.S. relying on foreign countries for our oil and manufactured goods, we should also be concerned about relying on others to fill our needs for mathematicians, engineers and scientists.
The researchers find girls and boys do about the same in math while theyre in elementary school. However, as soon as they hit middle school, girls in particular tend to lose interest in math, mainly due to peer pressure and the lack of challenging opportunities for kids who are especially good at the subject.
We are wasting this valuable resource, continues Mertz. Girls can excel in math at the very highest level.
To get more girls -- and boys -- excited about math, the report calls for the implementation of recommendations issued by the National Mathematics Advisory Panel, along with full funding of the America COMPETES, 10,000 Teachers, 10 Million Minds, and Sowing the Seeds through Science and Engineering Research Acts that have already been passed by Congress.
SOURCE: Notices of the American Mathematical Society, published online October 10, 2008
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