Describes the classrooms of two middle-school science teachers, reporting what they have noted regarding gender issues in the classroom, and describing strategies they find to be effective in helping girls--and boys--resist the negative effects of gender-binding in the middle school years. Discusses gender issues in language arts and what can be…

Examines the pressures girls in classrooms face as they reach adolescence and experience cultural norms that encourage the silencing of a young woman's voice as she grows into adulthood. Looks that the journal's potential to save that voice. Explores how classroom journals can be structured to help girls nurture and grow their voices. (SR)

Describes Tina, an energetic and confident sixth-grader. Talks to Tina as an eighth-grader. Finds that relationships and friendships have become a major focus for her; her arena for reading and response is now outside of school; and the traits of voice and self confidence present in the sixth-grade have continued developing, but some have gone…

Reports on a study of stories written by eighth graders in three very different schools, stories carrying powerful messages about how girls understand their place in the world. Finds that, in one set of stories, females control their lives only as long as they are "good," and in the other set, autonomous female protagonists fail (often for no…

Describes the crisis that young women face--a kind of suffocation--at adolescence, calling it both developmental and cultural. Argues that responsive teaching, and regular, fast, expressive writing without evaluation about whatever is in their minds will help girls define what is most important to them and examine what is going on in their lives.…