Dr Chuck Pearson

i don't feel like typing out a long comment...ask me if you really want to know what i was going to say (which is basically my experience with hard science courses)

Science. aah. my loathe and love, all at the same time. i'm apparently destined to be with a math/science man... so i have to love it. however, my mind doesn't always work in a math/science way (and don't let cowan tell you any differently... i am NOT to be a math major... NOT, i tell you!)

however, the argument can go the same way for my loves, foreign language and writing and children. so maybe, just maybe, if we all fall in love with someone whose foci are so very, very "fundamentally different" (in quotes because often they aren't as different as they would first appear), so that we are forced to learn about and appreciate something that was formerly "beyond our scope of understanding."

just a few thoughts from a double english/early childhood major w/ a minor in french whose heart still belongs to a double math/electrical engineering + theoretical physics major. :)

and, as rachel so eloquently pointed out, yes, i have a fragment. here is my response:

Rachel: so maybe, just maybe, if we all fall in love with someone whose foci are so very, very "fundamentally different" (in quotes because often they aren't as different as they would first appear), so that we are forced to learn about and appreciate something that was formerly "beyond our scope of understanding."
er...maybe what?
me: that's why i left it fragmentalized.
me: maybe we would find the secret to happiness
me: the fountain of youth
me: the castle Anthrax.
me: who knows?

so there. for any more smartarse englishy people. i'm high on drugs right now (anti throat soreness ones, keep your mind clean!), so cut me a little slack.

if we all fall in love with someone whose foci are so very, very "fundamentally different"
...to finish twin's thought with my own, then we will grow. as people, as a nation, as a world. (she's now telling me she meant it to be more like "we'll find happiness.") and we will find that at the core of our very beings, we are not so different at all.
just because i am a writer does not mean that i cannot understand and love the aerospace engineer, or the music education major. just because i am passionate about volleyball and football does not mean that i cannot understand baseball players' love for their own game, and love them for that passion. just because i am a WASP does not mean that i cannot love the adopted asian-american daughter of my music director at church, or the african american guy who was my boss and ended up my "brother." and just because i root for Auburn does not mean that i cannot appreciate *shudder* UGA fan's depth of feeling for their team.
enough of that.
suffice it to say that we all have our own passions, and the moment that we all appreciate that passions can differ without judging "better" or "worse," we'll find peace.

It has always been my belief that if a girl wants something, then she will get it. If she truly wants to be a physics major, then she will be-- she will have the desire to find a way to achieve it. Yes, your environment has an effect on what you believe you can achieve, but well ... to get slightly on a soap box, I have never felt repressed or held back by society in my life. Granted, that may be b/c I have had you, Dr. Chuck Pearson, in my life, but I'm sure it also has something to do with my own goals and desires, my own sense of self. My point is if you want something badly enough, you will get it-- man or woman. Screw society and its beliefs.

In response to all the women who apparently read and care enough about such words to reply, let me just turn this much around you:

I'm not so much concerned with getting YOU to study physics. Your ship, as it were, has already sailed, and you're plenty enchanted enough with your own directions. Bully to the lot of you.

I'm much more concerned with my daughter's classmates*, because those are going to be the ones who will have their picture of what they do academically shifted between now and when they start college. They're the ones for whom I'd like to contribute to breaking down the perceptions of What Girls Do.

I'll address Heather's comment directly. Yes, a girl will get something that she wants badly enough. So how do I - how do we as scientists - convince girls that they WANT to study physics (and engineering, and chemistry, and other associated fields)?

*My daughter's CLASSMATES, not my daughter. I'm fully convinced that Amelia will hear these rantings often enough from me that she will choose to study a romance language or music or somesuch - just to spite me.

Which, honestly, is fine, as long as she gets enchanted by that.

I think there are lots of ways of getting younger girls interested in science and such. We had a 5th grade teacher at our school that came around and talked about careers in science when I was in like 1st grade or something and that had a big impact on me. Not big enough to be a physics major but big enough to take science and math seriously for the rest of my life. Also, when girls see adult females in their lives only being teachers and nurses, they think that's what they should do. While you are an energizing speaker and all, you're not female and that what girls really need look up to. Find some females in your field and have them speak to the girls your daughter's age. Or you could bring a group of them into your physics lab and do something really fun with hot wheels or force tables or something. That would get me interested real quick.

agreed with nancy, but also agreed with heather.

i think that, for the most part, there is an extreme lack of female characters in the PUBLIC EYE who are scientists... however, I think these ideals of what is and isn't feminine to study are rapidly changing. i think that nancy has great points about directly helping your daughter's classmates... however, i also agree strongly with heather. i've never gotten the sense that i wouldn't have been able to do science or math, should they have been what sparked my interest. perhaps my interest was sparked because of social persuasions and norms (hoo-ray sociology -_-), but honestly. i love math and science, and i take them very seriously... i can see the concern for the lack of female figures, but it's just as important to foster a strong sense of individuality and personal accomplishment, no matter what the subject matter--then, and possibly only then, will girls feel free to study what interests them, and be interested by "non-femnine" fields of study. it's more important to encourage growth and strength in an overall sense, rather than push girls towards something specific just because they're not "traditionally" supposed to do it... then you're just reversing the stereotype.