As puberty takes hold, girls begin to lose the self-confidence that once helped them excel in math and science. Teachers collude in this process, education experts say, by failing to call on girls in class as frequently as they call on boys and by discouraging girls in other subtle ways. Ann Clarke, the Julia Morgan School's director and a veteran educator, said she had seen firsthand the tentativeness with which adolescent girls approached math when she had begun looking over the math tests she had given prospective students. Had boys been in Ms. Putnam's math class, Ms. Clarke said, the class would have been more frenetic. There's a different energy around girls.
Boys do things more in spurts.
At both Julia Morgan and the Girls' Middle School, the curriculum is carefully balanced with other subjects. Ms. Putnam, the math teacher at Julia Morgan, doubles as the flag football teacher. Ms. Topper also teaches Spanish and soccer. Ms. Clarke teaches drama. And an entire room is devoted to morning yoga exercises.