Message-Id: <3.0.32.19971123211603.0070d0fc@pop3.1stlink.net>
Date: Sun, 23 Nov 1997 21:18:38 -0900
To: pinhole@exploratorium.edu
From: The Lahrs <john-jan@lahr.org>
Subject: Two more cents worth
This has been a very interesting discussion. The following views
are based on my life experiences, both in viewing my own mix of
interests and abilities, and in watching my children grow up.
For me the central issue is one of pre-judging.
Through a combination of heredity and experience, people have
a wide variation in their interests, talents, expectations,
aspirations, and strengths with respect to a nearly infinite number
of parameters. By parameters, I include: cognitive abilities such
as memory (short-term, long-term, verbal, visual, spatial,
abstract, ...), problem solving and speed of processing; physical
abilities such as muscular strength and coordination, keenness of
hearing and sense of pitch and harmony, vision and visual processing;
an unlimited variety of short- and long-term expectations and
aspirations for themselves and others; an equally great variety
of interests; and numerous personality traits.
For any given parameter, one could, after appropriate research,
develop a distribution curve of per cent of population versus
parameter value, which might look like this:
% of population x x
x x x
x x x
x x x
x x x
x x x
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Parameter Value
If the distribution is divided by men (+) and women (o), then it
might look like this:
% of population x o +
x o +o+
x o + o+
x o + o +
x o+ o +
x +o o +
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Parameter Value
Note that although the mean of the distributions is different,
there is still substantial overlap. If one selected a man(+)
and a woman(o) at random, in the majority of cases the man would
have a higher parameter value than the woman for this attribute.
However, due to the great overlap and variability, it would be
very unfair to pre-judge any individuals and assume that they
are representative of the overall population mean values.
I expect that everyone has a tendency to make pre-judgements of
other people, whether favorable or unfavorable, based on such
factors as sex, age, and race, so it is necessary to be constantly
on guard against such generalizations and to allow every person
to be whomever they are. Of course teachers/parents have such
great influence on their students/children that they must take
extra precautions in this regard.
John
-- * John C. and Jan H. Lahr * * john-jan@lahr.org * * 914 10th Street * * Golden, Colorado 80401 * * (303) 215-9913 * * http://www.lahr.org/john-jan * * http://giseis.alaska.edu/lahr *