Posts tagged education
an experiment in the precision of unconventional communication
I do not mind that you are a girl, but the main thing is that you yourself do not mind. There is no reason for it.
Albert Einstein’s advice to a little girl who wants to be a scientist, in a 1946 letter.
(via Brain Pickings)
(via jtotheizzoe)
Notes &
Neil DeGrasse Tyson did an AMA on reddit.
Click through for the thread!
RIP: 14-year-old Jamey Rodemeyer, a victim of relentless anti-gay bullying, was found dead earlier this week of an apparent suicide.
“I always say how bullied I am, but no one listens,” Jamey wrote on his Tumblr blog in a post dated September 9th. “What do I have to do so people will listen to me?”
The bullying got particularly intense about twelve months ago, when classmates started leaving homophobic remarks on Jamey’s Formspring page. “JAMIE [sic] IS STUPID, GAY, FAT ANND UGLY. HE MUST DIE!,” read one of the many vicious comments.
Friends were always there to defend him, however, and Jamey himself even appeared to be taking the abuse in stride, contributing a video to Dan Savage’s “It Gets Better” project, in which he echos the words of Lady Gaga, telling other bullying victims to “hold [their] head up.”
Sadly, despite assuring his parents multiple times that everything was fine, all was not as it seemed. On Sunday, Jamey posted one final note on his Tumblr: “Thank you Lady Gaga.”
“He touched so many hearts, so many people,” Jamey mom Tracy’s told The Buffalo News. “I didn’t realize how many people he touched. He was the sweetest, kindest kid you’d ever know. He would give all his heart to you before he gave any to himself.”
As American servicemen and women across the globe celebrate the long-overdue demise of the military’s discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, Jamey’s untimely death offers a stark reminder that the struggle for tolerance is far from over.
[buffalonews / hausofjamey.]
As someone with younger siblings in this age group, I’m going to spend more time urging them to be kind, to be strong, to hold their heads up, and to condemn the bullies and reach out to the victims. This CANNOT happen anymore.
6 notes &
“Dance Your Ph.D” - source
I don’t even know.
Thanks, Ashika!
Sex appeal: Women kiss science goodbye
The findings come from a series of studies, funded in part by the National Science Foundation, that were undertaken to determine why women, who have made tremendous progress in education and the workplace over the past few decades, continue to be underrepresented at the highest levels of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).
Lead author Lora Park, associate professor of psychology at the University at Buffalo, and her co-authors found converging support for the idea that when romantic goals are activated, either by environmental cues or personal choice, women—but not men—show less interest in STEM and more interest in feminine fields, such as the arts, languages and English. The research is described in the article to be published in the September issue of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
“When the goal to be romantically desirable is activated, even by subtle situational cues, women report less interest in math and science,” says Park. “One reason why this might be is that pursuing intelligence goals in masculine fields, such as STEM, conflicts with pursuing romantic goals associated with traditional romantic scripts and gender norms.”
via infoneer-pulse
More subtle social pressures having huge effects on women’s role in STEM fields. Of course, if more of the romance of science were apparent, if the drama of the journey to discovery were made more clear, perhaps this could be different?
I mean, science (and scientists) is/are sexy, in their own way. Some people hate the use of sexy in this way, but how else do you describe the primal excitement of discovery and learning, the rush of satisfaction? And the lab coats … so hot, amiright?
The above study is evidence of past failures in the imagery of science put forth, but not an unassailable problem. We can put our hearts in this along with our minds.
Wait…what? WTF is this? Is it just me, or does this study contain more circular arguments than a conversation with a five-year-old?
What I think bothered me the most: Since when are STEM fields “masculine” and “feminine fields…the arts, languages and English”? You conduct a study that’s trying to figure out why there are fewer women than men in STEM fields and then you call the field “masculine” as if only men belong there. Come on.
Can we agree that you don’t have to be “masculine” to do things that men normally do, and also that doing things that are considered “masculine” is allowed even if you’re a woman?
Of course social pressures are the reason there aren’t more women in STEM fields. Everyone knows that, right? So the point of this study was to conduct weird surveys and stage weird conversations (sorry, I meant “romantic goal cues”) and otherwise further socially manipulate women rather than just, um, not socially conditioning them anymore?
Maybe I’m overreacting.
(via jtotheizzoe)
