>What surprised me at first was the large amount of critisism from my
>female friends and family members. After sorting it out in my own mind, I
>realized why: Women have come such a long way in fighting for our rights
>to be equal that some are still afraid that women who chose to be in
>traditional roles will set the movement back. So nursing, teaching (unless
>you're a professor in a high tech course), raising children, being a
>receptionist or anything else traditional makes some women feel
>uncomfortable. That is a real shame.
Yes, and you got me going.
I graduated with a BS in Computer Science back in 1982. I spent over 10
very frusterating and futile years working in my field. Took a year off
and discovered that what I enjoyed was teaching and training dogs. Since I
couldn't make a lot of money training dogs, I've kept that as a hobby and
decided to teach high school.
I started out teaching math and computer science, and now I teach computer
science full time. I work hard in my district (one of the largest in the
country), to convince people that just because someone is an "A" student
and live in the right neighborhood doesn't mean that they will be any good
at programmer and just because someone is on free and reduced lunch, hasn't
been attending school, and has a "C" average, might very well be good at
programming, and there is nothing to lose in placing them in a good
technology course.
And yes, I get put down on a regular basis. Since I teach, I obviously
can't DO. Well, ask my students?! I always manage to stay well ahead of
them. And I work much harder than I ever did -- I teach webmastering,
Visual Basic, and three levels of C++.
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