Alpha Girls - Overview

At the heart of our journey into cultural understanding is the idea that to teach our students effectively, we must understand them. Harvard University professor and child psychologist Dan Kindlon claims that the stale stereotypes of teenage girls are quickly losing their relevancy. In Alpha Girls, Kindlon argues that the image of the teenage girl as an insecure, competition averse, math and science averse wallflower no longer suit much of our population. In a series of surveys and personal interviews, which took Kindlon across the United States and through parts of Canada, he found that many girls are confident, bright, competitive and thirsty to make their mark in society. According to surveys he developed for this book, about 20 percent of girls fall into the “Alpha Girl” category.

To locate these “alpha girls” Kindlon produced a set of five criteria, which describe the typical “alpha girl”. These criteria are:

1. A GPA of 3.8 or higher

2. At least one leadership position in her school, extracurricular life or social life

3. Participation in extra curricular activities which minimums ten hours per week

4. High achievement motivation score based on her desire to:

a. Attend college

b. Own her own home

c. Make a great deal of money

d. Obtain a well-paying job

e. Build a good reputation in her community

f. Study hard to obtain good grades

g. Work hard to get ahead

h. Save money for the future

5. High self-rating for dependability

Alpha Girls outlines a series of factors that contribute to this shift in attitudes and realities of teenage girls. An increased presence of fathers in raising their children, increased freedom in available choices, movements made by feminism in previous generations and more women than men attending American universities are all billed by the author as pieces of the “alpha girls” puzzle.

Where Alpha Girls offers many answers for us as Americans, it raises more questions for us as educators. By the author’s own estimates, only 20 percent of girls qualify as “alpha girls”. How should we engage them as teachers and how should we engage the other 80 percent? How does this impact the self-esteem of boys in our classrooms?

We invite our colleagues to explore these questions and many more that will be raised here in the coming weeks as we attempt to gain a greater understanding of the “alpha girls” inside our classrooms and out.

Candace, Lydia, Millicent, Kyla, Chantress, Shaterra, & Danielle