The Power of "He"

Several months ago my six year old daughter began asking me about the gender of characters in books.  Is baby bear a girl or a boy? she asked as I read her Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  I realized I had never thought about it that much.  To me, baby bear was always just baby bear.  I flipped through the pages.  There it was: the pronoun he.  "It's a boy", I said and continued to read.  The next night?  Same thing.  This time we were reading Jane Yolen's "How do Dinosaurs go to Bed?".  Is that dinosaur a girl or a boy?  she asked as we read through the book.  All boys I thought to myself as I flipped through the book.  Five dinosaurs, all boys.  Perhaps you can see where this is going.

Discovery Math and Teacher Training

As a new teacher and a parent, math has been on my mind quite a bit. In February of 2010, a Seattle judge ruled against a Seattle Public School District curriculum known as "Discovery Math".  The math program encouraged constructivist problem solving and group work as opposed to more traditional drill methods.  According to the ruling, the curriculum favored middle class students at the expense of lower income students, students of color, and ESL students (see: http://www.seattlepi.com/local/415049_math04.html).  Indeed, after the adoption of the program at Garfield High School, math scores among poor, minority and ESL students dropped dramatically. So what does this mean?