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I have another explanation. When I was a 13-year-old high school freshman I did rather well in math, and I could even multiply two two-digit numbers in my head.?However, by the time I was a senior I was no good at arithmetic.?(I could do plane geometry because the answer is right in front of you.)?Now, at the age of 79 I can't tell you what 9 x 6 us without multiplying 10 x 6 and subtracting 6.?(See??I seem to understand *the operations*, but don't recall what the little symbols mean.) Why the change??I strongly suspect it was because around age 13 I started to date, and at that time girls who were good in?math were considered "unfeminine".?Boys didn't like girls who were unfemine (or said to be), so I think that my brain automatically culled those useless arithmetical brain cells.?(The brain scientists have discovered that children cull the useless information stored in their brain cells.?That leaves room for what is important.) So I think the answer to why girls?generally don't do as well in math as boys from adolescence onward is because adolescent girls usually like boys and because their brains?cull those subsequently useless arithmetic brain cells.?It's a sociological problem and a biological one, both nature and nurture.?Sad.