That's really what I was getting at. Do females inherently have such different neurological wiring that they actually learn things differently, or are we socialized to focus more on concrete representations?

Personally, I'm all for teaching from a constructivist approach because a) the abstract, linear representation is there already, and they'll all get that, so it provides built-in differentiation and b) I've noticed ALL kids benefit from it.

And of course, I have a huge concern with how socialization affects performance on standardized tests. I think boys are socialized to do better on multiple-choice tests and girls aren't.