Strategy Session

Baseball and engineering. There’s a connection, right? MIT knows it. We have a shortage of youth who are interested in choosing engineering as a profession and this country has a shortage of engineers, right? MIT decided to pair baseball and engineering for its first MIT Science of Baseball summer camp for eighth grade boys in Boston proper.

Boys.

The program, held during the entire month of July, helps boys develop math and science skills through hands-on learning activities that directly tie to key baseball skills. The kids work on their batting, running, fielding and throwing skills and play a scrimmage for half of each day, and then spend the other half in class where connections are made between the game and numerical and scientific analysis. Why does a curve ball curve? They’ve learned why.

When I read about the program and got over my initial enthusiasm I thought, “Why only boys? Girls don’t like baseball--in Boston? We don’t want girls to become enthusiastic about math and science?”

The idea for the program belongs to Karl Reid, associate dean and director of the MIT Office of Minority Education. I gave him a call.

Here’s the main reason why the program is for boys: taking into account the high school dropout rate of boys in the inner city, the organizers decided to specifically target eighth grade boys to get them interested in math and science early. “If you look at the statistics of boys in school, they are dropping out at higher rates (than girls). They are not on the college tracks; the valedictorian awards tend to go to the young women.” Reid adds that statistics show that in many urban communities some 50% of ninth graders don’t graduate--and the majority of those youths are boys.

As for the absence of girls in the camp, Reid said, “It’s a recurring question.” He adds, “It was very intentional. I don’t believe (the concept) should not be applied to girls.”

“Boys perform very well in an academic setting that is both active and competitive, more so than girls; statistical studies have been done that show that,” he said.

I want to point out to you athletes out there that this baseball camp is not for jocks. There are some boys in the program who have never played baseball. Reid says that this is something the organizers weren’t expecting, which he says shows that baseball is not reaching the inner city. There are few inner-city youth baseball leagues even in baseball-crazy Boston. Another goal of the program is to get the boys more interested in playing baseball.

He stresses that this year’s program is a pilot program (less than 30 kids this summer, and next year they hope to expand to 36 boys); the hope is to replicate this outreach program concept across the country and even to other sports. While coed courses are possible, Reid mentions that gender specific education matters—particularly in the middle school years. I agree with him on that point, given that I have a daughter who has attended an all-female school in Boston beginning in fifth grade.

Don't misunderstand me: I applaud MIT for this outreach program, and for giving these boys the opportunity. The boys attend for free; the cost of the program is paid for by other entities. But, I really hope that MIT will not exclude girls when it comes up with its next innovative idea on how to get kids interested in math and science. That would be a real shame.