Duo speaks on sexual bias
By Eve Nations
Staff Reporter
Sexual bias in the classroom begins early in
the educational system, according to a husband
and wife research team wno spoke Thursday to
about 200 people.
David and Myra Sadker, two professors of
education from American University in Wash
ington, D.C., gave the lecture “Sex Bias from
Classroom to Boardroom,” to a mostly student
audience at the Wick Alumni Center in an
effort to combat sexism and sexual harassment
across the country .
About one half of elementary classrooms
and one third of college classrooms are segre
gated by sex, David Sadker said.
Males and females also are segregated in the
way a teacher interacts with the student, he
said.
Males are more likely to get positive rein
forcement from a teacher,’ ’ David Sadker said.
“Females just get told they are wrong.
“Females arc more likely to get positive
reinforcement on their appearance or the neat
ness of their homework than the content of the
homework,” he said.
Classrooms usually contain three different
types of students, he said.
Certain students always have their hands up,
he said. These students, although they only
number one or two per classroom, are more
likely to be male. They also consume about 25
percent of the teacher’s attention, he said.
The second type of students are nominal
students, David Sadker said.
These students usually only get one ques
tion per class period, he said. “If the teacher
asks them more than one, they think they are
being picked on,” he said.
The third type are silent students. Usually
half of a class never talks, especially in college,
he said. They are the spectators in the class
room.
Research shows that males are more aggi es
sive in the classroom, Myra Sadker said.
“Males are eight times more likely to yell
out answers,” she said. “Girls don’t usually
yell out answers, but when they do, teachers are
more 1 ikely to tell them to raise their hands next
time.”
Girls, when tested in elementary school,
perform better than boys in all areas of academ
ics, she said. But by the time they graduate
from high school, boys score higher than girls,
Myra Sadker said.
This is because boys get more attention in
school, she said.
People perceive boys and girls acting a
certain way, David Sadker said. Accepting the
way people act instead of the way their gender
should act will help break the stereotyping, he
said.
“We all should do a better job making the
reality and the perception the same,” he said.
International House gets a vote
By Brandon Loomis
Senior Reporter
The Residence Hall Association passed a
bill Thursday giving the International House
the right to elect representatives to RHA, after
debate over constitutionality and whether the
house already had representation.
Opponents of the bill argued that residents
of the house, which consists of two floors in the
Neihardt complex, already have representation
through Neihardt senators.
Abel President Bart Vitek quoted the RHA
constitution as saying, “No overlapping of
jurisdiction shall be allowed.’’ He said giving
separate representation to the house would
result in overlapping.
RHA member Steve Thomlison agreed.
“It appears to have an unconstilulionalily
ness to it,’’ he said.
Conrad Castaneda, Neihardt president, said
the International House is financially separate
from Neihardt, and is therefore a distinct en
tity.
RHA distributes funds to the International
House separately from NeihardL
RHA members were not sure whether resi
dents of the house are included in the official
population of NeihardL
RHA member Stacy Mohling said residents
of the house should have total representation.
“I’m very embarrassed that RHA is trying
to shove them in the back comer,’’ she said.
Smith President Devi Bohling argued that
the International House has only about 70
residents, whereas most other halls with RHA
representation have at least 250.
RHA member Bill Vobejda said the house is
a special interest floor, with no greater privi
leges than an engineering or journalism floor. I
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