“Woman as a Symptom of Man”
Interesting piece on a new movement led by Dr. Leonard Sax promoting single-sex education in public schools. Sax basically argues that “Girls and boys play differently. They learn differently. They fight differently. They see the world differently. They hear differently.” I’m not even sure I would disagree with this proposition, but it seems to me a logical fallacy to then essentialize these differences and institute them along quasi-segregationist lines, rather than understanding them to be the result of a curved, masculine social space, of an imbalance already playing itself out in the construction of gender identity and even sex itself.
It also seems like a bad idea to relegate children to the position of objects in need of techno-biological administration, as is the case with the application of focus-enhancing drugs, as well as this new system which attempts to turn cognitive science data into an ideologically suspect socio-political agenda. It comes as perhaps no surprise that the movement is supported by No Child Left Behind.
I would urge all socially conscious cognitive scientists to give this material a second look.