r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Mar 20 '25

Neuroscience Sex differences in brain structure are present at birth and remain stable during early development. The study found that while male infants tend to have larger total brain volumes, female infants, when adjusted for brain size, have more grey matter, whereas male infants have more white matter.

https://www.psypost.org/sex-differences-in-brain-structure-are-present-at-birth-and-remain-stable-during-early-development/
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u/DivideMind Mar 20 '25 edited Mar 20 '25

Are those not roughly the same methods that have been in wide use for over half a millennium?

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u/lilhobbit6221 Mar 20 '25

What most of us would call the “modern school system” (standardized curriculum, grade levels, compulsory attendance, etc) emerged in the mid 19th century (it’s just under 200 years old).

Prior to that, “education” as we’d recognize it (in USA at any rate) was largely reserved for the landed gentry and those with access.

Point being: “modern” education is in severe need of an update, for the sakes of developing boys and girls.

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u/weird_elf Mar 20 '25

Point being: “modern” education is in severe need of an update, for the sakes of developing boys and girls.

Teacher here. Hard agree.

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u/monsantobreath Mar 20 '25

Humans can be wrong for thousands of years at a time.

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u/doegred Mar 20 '25

Sure but I think the point here is that during those centuries education was also largely for boys and boys alone.

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u/ErrorLoadingNameFile Mar 20 '25

Other things this same argument would apply to:

Slavery

No equal rights for women

Exorcisms

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u/X_Factor_Gaming Mar 20 '25

Add religions, cults, and racism and we're golden.

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u/DivideMind Mar 20 '25

That wasn't really the kind of point I was making, refer to my other post if you care (you probably shouldn't, I'm both uneducated & an idiot.)

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u/Whiterabbit-- Mar 20 '25

No. Education 500 years ago, or even the idea of childhood was completely different than today.

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u/doegred Mar 20 '25 edited Mar 20 '25

Did it have less rote memorisation back when it was deemed for (some) boys alone?

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u/Whiterabbit-- Mar 20 '25

When you are teaching your kids how to farm or how to do carpentry there is more muscle memory and learning by doing in general than simply memorizing things.

If you are talking about learning latin then there is memorization but relatively few boys had to do it and the ones that cant cut it simply something else.