Math is revered in this world, not verbal. Intellectually to be good at math is to be pretty. To not be is to be plain or ugly. Verbally gifted girls have been learning this since the earliest age.
Even DD9, whose latest reading scores are in the 11th grade advanced level, has no self-conscious sense of being smart. She even asked me the other day whether she was smart. She gets A's in math, but works hard to maintain them and does not work above grade level. But she eagerly points out again and again the "smart" boy in her class who is good at--surprise--math.
I tried to explain to her that there are many ways of being smart, just like there are many athletes. Nobody can say a professional football player is a better athlete than a professional ice skater. But we know that the world at large praises and pays the football players more.
I don't want to try to make her something she is not in order to garner more praise. I think these programs that sincerely try to lure girls more into math and the sciences are unconsciously repeating the same popular myth that smart people are math and science people.
How about telling these girls that their depth of insight and sophisticated humor are as impressive as if they could do three-digit multiplication in their heads? The problem is that nobody is telling them this. I'm sure if DD could do three-digit multiplication in her head she'd be a celebrity in her school. Her fellow classmates would be pointing her out as the "smart" girl.
On that rambling note, I will leave with this awesome quote (sorry, no time to look up source but it's from 100+ years ago):
The highest and yet the simplest mode of education consists in teaching mind to manage itself--to understand and make efficient use of its peculiar endowments--to profit by its own mistakes--and to bring into practical exercise what, in theory, it admires and loves.
