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<title>Jay's World of Abstracts 00019: Raising Smart, Bold Girls</title>
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content="mcch, family, girl, prevention, intervention">
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content="A excerpt of ideas to help girls reach their full potential by becoming smart and bold.">
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<h2 align="right">Jay's World of Abstracts 00019</h2><hr>
<div align="center"><h1>Raising Smart, Bold Girls</h1>
excerpted
from the Girls Incorporated Operation SMART
program</div>
<hr>
<i>[Standard disclaimer: The nature of abstracts are that they are pieces of something larger. Not everyone is going to be happy with my choice of abstracts from any larger work, so if you are dissatisfied, I would refer you to the original document, which should be able to be found on the Internet. I encourage others to make their own abstracts to satisfy their needs. I would be happy to publish them here.</i>
<h3>Jay's Introduction</h3>
<p>This abstract comes from the web site of Girls Incorporated (the old Girls Clubs of America) and paints a picture that girls will be powerful when they take on math and science. Perhaps.</p>
<i>I produced this abstract using time paid for by the Quay County Maternal Child and Community Health Council with funds from the New Mexico Department of Health.</i>
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<h3>Abstracts</h3>
<FONT
face=Arial,Helvetica><FONT size=-1><B>
<CENTER>Raising Smart, Bold Girls</B><BR><I>excerpted
from the Girls Incorporated Operation SMART
program</I></CENTER>
<UL>
<LI><B>Assume girls are interested in math, science
and technology.</B> Girls will jump at the opportunity
to dismantle machines, care for small animals and
solve logic puzzles.
<LI><B>Let them make big, interesting mistakes.</B>
Girls who are overly protected in the lab or on the
playground have few chances to assess tasks and solve
problems on their own. Supported by adults instead of
rescued, girls learn to embrace their curiosity, face
their fear and trust their own judgment.
<LI><B>Help them get past the "yuk" factor.</B> Girls
who are afraid of getting dirty aren't born that way
-- they're made. Girls Incorporated encourages girls
to put concerns about their "femininity" aside and get
good and grubby digging in a river bed or exploring a
car engine. Girls learn they have a right to be
themselves -- people first and females second -- and
to resist pressure to behave in sex-stereotyped ways.
<LI><B>Expect them to succeed.</B> Teach girls that
they are not only capable of mastering math and
science, they're expected to continue to do so
throughout high school and college. They learn that
their ambition is as natural as boys' - and as
necessary, if they are to become leaders of the 21st
century.
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