We still raise girls to look to other people for assurance they are attractive and smart, while boys are raised to determine their own value. Many girls are still made to feel it's not feminine to be good at science or math.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the gender disparities in self-esteem and educational encouragement between girls and boys.
Eileen Pollack's quote emphasizes the societal conditioning that influences how girls and boys perceive their worth. While boys are often encouraged to establish their self-value independently, girls are frequently taught to seek validation from others, especially regarding their attractiveness and intelligence. This societal expectation can limit girls' confidence in fields such as science and math, which are traditionally viewed as less feminine. Pollack advocates for a shift in this mindset to foster equal opportunities and self-assurance in all genders.
In practice
In a discussion about gender equality in education, this quote can illustrate the need for empowering girls.
The mind of a child is no less vagrant than his steps; it pursues the gossamer and flies from object to object, lawless and unconfined, and it is equally necessary to the development of his frame that his thoughts and his body should be free from fetters.
Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people-- people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book.
It was play rather than work which enabled man to evolve his higher faculties - everything we mean by the word 'culture'.
Today, in every wave of every ocean, I see our children playing and dancing. Today, in every plant, tree, and mountain, I see our children growing in freedom.
The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read With loads of learned lumber in his head.
By all means read the Puritans, they are worth more than all the modern stuff put together.
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