DURHAM
-- Even the high school for the state's science and math elite can't
find enough girls willing to become computer geeks. So it's deleting
boys from one of its techie classes.
The school is 49 percent female, but since 2002, just 33 girls have
taken the introductory computer science course at the N.C. School of
Science and Mathematics, compared with 154 boys.
That bothered NCSSM President Gerald Boarman. "As I went around to talk
to the girls ... I said, 'You are bright; you are excellent math
students. Why don't you get into these classes?'
"It was because of the boys."
So,
starting in October, the school will offer a computer science class for
girls only. The hope is that without the know-it-all boys there, the
girls will find the same allure in programming as they do in mapping
genes and solving equations."
