Girls Need Science, Math Training For Their Futures

Math anxiety.

No interest in science.

Fear of learning the workings of mechanical objects.

These negatives, nurtured by society in early childhood, follow many girls and young women throughout their schooling and ultimately into the workplace.

In a high-tech society, women who are so turned off by things mechanical that they can’t program their VCRs or forward a phone call are seriously limiting their career possibilities.

One way to change this situation is to get to girls when they are very young and help them see the joy of science, according to Jean M. Linsner, director of Operation SMART for the YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago.

“Once young girls think they can’t do math, they start avoiding anything connected with it, which eliminates them from future job opportunities,” said Linsner, who has a bachelor’s degree in English and telecommunications and a master’s degree in education from Indiana University in Bloomington.

Operation SMART, developed by Girls Inc., based in New York City, is a supplementary educational program offered to low-income children ages 6 to 12.

In Chicago, the hands-on science program is given after school at six centers to youngsters who qualify for subsidized child care. Linsner’s budget varies from $50,000 to $75,000 annually.

In one year, 350 children are reached by the Y’s science, math and computer classes, and half of them are girls.

“One of the problems is we define math and science so narrowly, often as only being computations and experiments with stated outcomes,” said Linsner, formerly a consultant in science for child-care programs and a trainer in computerized systems.

That narrowness, plus admonitions to young girls “not to get their hands dirty, to be neat and pretty,” and societal pressure not to enter so-called “male domains,” combine to turn young girls away from things scientific.

Linsner counters these stereotypes by showing youngsters that science and math are part of our daily lives, not separate entities to be feared.

“Our child-care workers have the kids working with real computers, real insects, real bikes and real cars - not theoretical subjects,” said Linsner, who has directed the program since 1994.

Linsner describes herself as “an educator who specializes in science.” She says she was lucky when she was growing up in Chicago because her family “spent a lot of time at cultural museums, nature centers and zoos.”

She also helped to fix up things around the house and had a science teacher in high school who encouraged her interest.

Linsner creates the programs for the Y, trains child-care workers to teach them and does some teaching herself. In the programs, she encourages young girls to “use math regularly. It’s not just having to do your homework. It can be used to figure out how to give change, measurements for art projects, how electricity works. Kids are born scientists.”

Young girls who grow up fearing math and science can be lost in our high-tech society, says Linsner, who cheerfully announces she programs her two VCRs, “and they don’t blink midnight.”

“Most jobs, as we move into the next century, require a comfort level with technology and, if you keep stepping away, you’ll be left behind,” she warns.

The “willingness to figure things out and not to be afraid - that’s what we teach,” Linsner said. “They’re your biggest asset for any future job.”

And she also has hope for older women who carry the baggage of math anxiety. “With training, anybody can learn to do anything,” Linsner said.

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