In the melting pot of the beautiful U.S., citizens strive to work together and obtain the American dream. Among some media outlets, however, a culture of tension among races and sexes is inspired, causing many citizens to feel they are oppressed and victimized. One news outlet is especially responsible for creating such strains.
The New York Times recently published a piece entitled “Where Boys Outperform Girls in Math: Rich, White and Suburban Districts.” The authors attempted to give evidence as to why males excel in arithmetic in some districts in the U.S. by citing concerns about race and the “patriarchy.”
What are the facts? The NYT misrepresented findings by a Stanford University survey in an attempt to skew the data in favor of a far-left lens. The experiment examined tests scores from 10,000 school districts in the U.S. between the years 2008 to 2014. It found that there are no differences in arithmetic grade averages among the genders.
However, in more socioeconomically advantaged districts and among communities with more substantial gender differences in socioeconomic status (SES), men scored significantly higher than females in math coursework. The NYT states that these neighborhoods are mostly white or Asian and thus form a gender and race gap.
These empty race-baiting claims create conflict among citizens. The publication notes that boys from black or Latin American families view schooling as being effeminate. They gave “evidence” by citing a single experiment on the outlook on education from children in Berlin, where the culture is not nearly as diverse compared to the U.S. There is insufficient data to prove that these ethnicities are prone to reject education.
The NYT’s next proclamation was that many believe women are inherently inept at arithmetic, causing the sex to underachieve. They noted a study from the peer-reviewed scientific journal Developmental Psychology, which found that girls raised by mothers who believe that gender decides mathematical astuteness will perform worse on the subject.
The findings should come as no surprise, as environment considerably influences one’s beliefs, as reported by Liberty Nation. Nevertheless, the leftist media outlet failed to cite any research on how widespread of a perspective it is to believe women are naturally poor at arithmetic. Currently, there are few, if any, studies on the subject, giving insufficient proof to support the NYT’s assertions.
Furthermore, likening gender differences in SES to the underachievement from women does not entail that white or Asian communities are patriarchally ruled, as the NYT implies. Instead, multiple factors could play into the results. Perhaps populations with such variances have more stay-at-home mothers. Daughters raised by homemaking mothers may be more likely to view raising a family as more important than being career focused.
The Facts
In all districts studied, Stanford found that girls outperformed boys in English and language arts by about three-quarters. Where is the cry for aiding our boys in these subjects? It seems not to fit the far-left agenda.
Furthermore, many experts believe the classroom structure is geared more towards female learning styles, as reported by LN. While girls may easily sit still and listen in the classroom, boys are often too hyperactive to remain in their places for long durations. In fact, males are disproportionately misdiagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
The condition has mostly been targeted towards men because their behaviors are typically more easily mistaken by teachers as abnormal hyperactivity, as noted by the journal Pediatrics and Child Health. Leftist media outlets, however, wish to misconstrue the data, as they attempt to blame discomforts on the supposedly patriarchal and racist white Americans.
Those on the left often attempt to force individuals to mistakenly believe they are oppressed and inherently incompetent at specific subjects. According to LN, early this year two Seattle professors erroneously stated that the culprits of girls being “discouraged” from entering STEM fields are the supposed white male traits of “independence, rationality, and objectivity” prevalent in scientific ideology. They seem to imply that women are dependent, irrational, and ignorant. How progressive of them.
LN also reports that the University of Akron barred an IT professor from increasing the scores of women in his class by two letter grades. The instructor planned to permit men struggling in the class to fail without such assistance.
Another injustice reported by LN comes from a mathematical education teacher at the University of Illinois, who argued that algebra and geometry symbolize “unearned privileges” that perpetuates white power. The instructor believed that minorities experience “microaggressions” when participating in calculation courses, where individuals are “judged by whether they can reason abstractly.”
Are numerical competencies dependent upon one’s culture or gender? According to the Public Library of Science, there is no evidence to support the existence of generalized neurobiological dissimilarities between ethnicities and sex, although the brains of various individuals may somewhat contrast due to genetics and environmental factors.
It seems the only reason some may believe certain individuals are naturally uneducated is due to the far-left agenda pushed on our country’s citizens. Correlation does not imply causation, and writers at the NYT should be competent in topics in which they write to understand that concept.
Making empty assertions only creates tensions and attempts to force the news source’s agenda on others, causing many to feel that they are victims.
As per Liberty Nation’s motto, we are devoted to being a source of intelligent, insightful and honest news analysis and commentary. In fact, our mission is to become the go-to resource for any intellectually honest reader who seeks to navigate the treacherous waters of today’s biased media offerings in search of truth.
