The quote is from a study comparing math SAT scores between the sexes and from this letter that provides more context.
Dear Tom and Ray,
I couldn't believe my eyes. There in the January 24th edition of the NY Times was an article talking about Gray Matter and the Sexes. As a result of Hahvahd President Laurence Summers noticing a difference between the minds of men and women, the scientific community has been in an uproar over "nature vs. nurture" to account for observed differences of the sexes. Which then led the NY Times reporters to notice the following:
"Among college-bound seniors who took the math SATs in 2001, for example, nearly twice as many boys as girls scored over 700, and the ratio skews ever more male the closer one gets to the top tally of 800. Boys are also likelier than girls to get nearly all the answers wrong.
"For Dr. Summers and others, the overwhelmingly male tails of the bell curve may be telling. Such results, taken together with assorted other neuro-curiosities like the comparatively greater number of boys with learning disorders, autism and attention deficit disorder, suggest to them that the male brain is a delicate object, inherently prone to extremes, both of incompetence and of genius."
THERE IT IS! A single sentence that explains both the brilliance we come to expect from you every week, AND the bogus effluent we hear spewing from our radios on Saturday mornings. "The male brain is a delicate object, inherently prone to extremes, both of incompetence and of genius."
What else can anyone say? It is no coincidence, I'm sure, that both of you and Dr. Summers reside in close proximity to each other. After all, birds of a feather flock together. We are left to sort the rare gems from the pile of manure weekly.
Ted Loewenberg
San Francisco
San Francisco
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