Girls with autism (but not boys) get special training

Submitted by bronxman on Mon, 2013-08-12 12:32

Article here. We spend millions to retain girls in engineering, but not a dime to retain boys in reading. And now comes the salt in the wound. This program is to retain autistic girls in engineering. But it is boys who are mostly the victims of autism. So, here are the priorities:

1. Girls
2. Girls with autism
3. Boys (last)

Excerpt:

'Until last week, Courtney Thompson had never really thought about how M&Ms are made. But then she watched an experiment by scientists from IBM who used the candy to illustrate ideas behind quality-control testing.

And now, the 16-year-old from Apple Valley thinks project management is “pretty cool.”

“Do you know which kind of M&M has the fewest defects?” she asked. “It’s yellow. But I like the brown ones.”'

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Comments

There's nothing wrong with special programs for kids with these types of special needs. What is wrong is deciding one particular sex of such kids ought to be getting extra-special attention for no other reason than that they're boys/girls.

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Submitted by Matt on Tue, 2013-08-13 02:26

So they put her on a camp to experience engineering. And she acquires an interest in (… drumroll …) project management.

Just what the world fucking needs.

And this:

"On Friday, Bretscher and other 3M scientists taught the girls how to make bottle rockets and then launched them, competing for both distance and accuracy.
She mentored a team of girls who dubbed themselves “The Fluffy Unicorns.” One of them, Izzy Blanchard, made two rockets — one that looked like a bumblebee and another that was green and pink and bore the camp’s name.
“It’s just the first thing I thought of,” she said of the bumblebee rocket.
Thompson also made sure there was ample bling on her rocket, such as glitter and sequins. She was unsure the two would fly, but gave herself high marks in artistry."

Bottle rockets, yay! Glitter and sequins! Will it fly? Who gives a fuck, we are hear to learn engineering!

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Submitted by MrWombat on Tue, 2013-08-13 05:38