Some education experts say that the key to making girls interested in math, science and technology lies not so much in single-sex schools as in better teaching methods. Working under a National Science Foundation grant, Marcia Linn, a professor of math, science and technology education at the University of California at Berkeley, found that making science personally relevant to students contributed to sex equity. The idea is to make it so that it comes up again and again in your life. I'm much more in favor of making the way we teach in our middle schools effective for everyone. Dr. Linn has been asked to advise both the Julia Morgan School and the Girls' Middle School on their technology curriculums.
Some successes are undeniable.
For several years, Castilleja, a girls' middle and high school in Palo Alto, Calif., established in 1907, has sent teams to the robotics competition at NASA's Ames Research Center. Last year, Castilleja, the only all-girls entry, took both first and third place. More low-key successes are frequent for students at the Girls' Middle School. Mr. Lynch said he intended to send his daughter, Katherine, who is in fifth grade, to the Girls' Middle School next year. The whole thing showed me how much these students are in charge of themselves.