<p>I thought you wanted the article about the college prez. Sorry.</p>
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<p>No, I asked for the article. What I meant was that I wasn’t making the same claim as him.</p>
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<p>I experienced this too. In my 1st semester Calculus AB class, I was one of maybe 5 girls in a class of 30, and perhaps the only one who took it seriously and did well. In my second semester BC class, I was one of 4 girls in a class of 28 again, with only 1 other girl taking it seriously. We both did rather well though- top 2 marks in the class :D</p>
<p>@vlad, I actually agree with you. Not everyone is wired the same away or has the same interests. If more girls choose out of free will not to take science but instead art, there is nothing wrong with that. Of course, if they are pressured not to, then there is an issue with that.</p>
<p>Re: Larry Summers. His examples seemed quite crude to me, and he has made other controversial remarks about women that I cannot agree with. That being said, it is certainly a matter worth looking into.</p>
<p>@vlad you said “maybe not interested” and Summers said “maybe not able”, more or less. I understand the difference.</p>
<p>But maybe when girls are repeatedly told that math/science are boy things, or that women don’t like STEM, or the only STEM profs they see are men, they indeed lose interest.</p>
<p>Or maybe when they’re segregated by gender so they can learn in a “female” way with “nonconfrontational” methods and are assumed to not really need recess or much moving around or cool lessons based on burping they get a similar message…</p>
<p>the lack of women in STEM fields is a huge problem… the lack of men in K-12 teaching is a non-issue?</p>
<p>At least where I am, there is no lack of male teachers. Partly because we seem to care about sports so much, we need coaches. In jr high ratio is 50/50, and 38/70 teachers in our hs are male. And the reason for fewer men in the teaching field has been uncovered-money. After all, it is hard to raise a family on a teacher’s salary.</p>
<p>My son had male teachers for 3/6 grades in k-5. He always did better with men because he likes straight forward direction and consequences. He also does fine with “old school” methods when employed by a woman. We found that many younger female teachers have a way of speaking that is weirdly indirect - “Is that what you’re supposed to be doing right now?” “Do you want to think about that some more?” “Get out your math books, OK?” It drove him nuts. They ask when they should tell. </p>
<p>He has had many male teachers so far in 6-9.</p>
<p>greenbutton–why would you use that measure? What if someone was very successful in college yet doesn’t WANT to be a CEO or in a “key position”? I also think that if you use that as a measure of what makes a successful college you might be surprised at the results…</p>
<p>I don’t think there is a lack of male teachers in the middle and high school ages, grade 4 and below, however, there are very few male teachers. I also don’t think that it is just because of sports that men go into teaching. Most of the male teachers in our school do NOT coach. I would say there is an equal proportion of female/male teachers that coach or are advisers for various activities. Also, in our science department, there is ONE male science teacher, the rest are female. The math department is equally split. Our Art and music teachers are all male the only female is the dance teacher. Maybe it’s not this way everywhere but I think that in the education field the male/female balance is there for middle/high school.</p>
<p>Out is the corporate world, no, that is not the case, except for medical school/doctors. I think on the pre-med page here I read that the past few years, medical school admissions have been strongly female.</p>
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<p>This reminds me of a family I used to know, decades ago, who emigrated from the Soviet Union to Canada. The mom was a doctor and had been head of a department in a large teaching hospital in the USSR, while the dad was an engineer. Both gained Canadian certification in their professions and found similar jobs to what they’d had before. The whole family was disconcerted that Canadians plainly regarded the mom’s work as the more prestigious career. In the USSR, most doctors were women, and medicine was regarded as “women’s work” and less prestigious than engineering.</p>
<p>^Very many Asian girls, for sure, despite of ORM status and many many obstacles, like taking care of parents who have hard time adjusting, these girls (and boys) are getting thru, very hard working bunch!</p>
<p>"In the USSR, most doctors were women, and medicine was regarded as “women’s work” and less prestigious than engineering. "
-Only 5 years of college (vs 8 = 4 + 4) and very low pay. Also it was all government. It has changed since then and might not be true at all, I believe there are lots in private practice and they have only 5 Med. Schools in the country. In the USSR, care was not there at all, most would go to the doc. to get excuse from work. Very high mortality rate (you will not get true stats, not possible) especially in infants and retirees as these groups are “unproductive” resources of society. This is a future of our health care here…</p>
<p>SteveMA: you misunderstood my post, I was replying to something upthread. I agree with you.</p>
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<p>Really? Such an odd projection, that change in the US healthcare system would make it like the old USSR system, rather than the healthcare in other first world nations such as Canada, Japan or Germany.</p>
<p>I have three kids, age 13-23 and none ever had a male teacher for an academic subject before high school and the total number of male academic teachers in high school among the two have finished high shool is 4. I think it would have made a huge difference for my son.</p>
<p>weatherga,
Bless your heart, you are truly a very fortunate person as any who decided to close their eyes and dream on. I wish I was like this, I wish I did not have my experiences, but we are who we are, cannot change that.</p>
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<p>Not really. Men outnumber women in med schools; last year there were 37.5k men, and 35.4k women in med schools. (In 2002, it was 37k and 32k, respectively.) </p>
<p>Women currently comprise 47% of the applicant pool, (down from 50% in 2003-04).</p>
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<p>Actually, many non-Combloc countries outside the US have the 4-5 year system vs the 4 + 4 system we have here…including Britain. </p>
<p>Medicine is also one of the most prestigious career paths as well…as shown by the extremely low admissions rates into the medical school. In most of the countries I know of, it’s much easier to be an engineer than a medical doctor even if the education path is “only” 4-5 years. </p>
<p>Then again, most countries with the shortened medical school career path also have the same for other professions requiring grad professional degrees here…like Law. </p>
<p>In Britain, a law degree is a 3 year undergrad degree and one doesn’t necessarily have to study in the law department to become a lawyer. If one has an undergrad degree in most fields…all they would need to do is complete a one year law conversion course and they’ll be regarded at the same level as the 3 year law department graduates when it comes to required professional internships and licensing.</p>
<p>In my area, by middle school here there are a lot of male teachers. K-6 only a couple.</p>
<p>I do think this is at least partly due to the idea that younger kids need “mommy” type teachers but by MS and certainly HS they are old enough to be taught “serious subjects” by men.</p>
<p>My 60-something male boss was an elementary school teacher in his 20s. He said he grew a beard because the kids called him mommy all the time. </p>
<p>My son had more male teachers in high school than females. I think it was a good thing. We did not realize he would have so many male teachers. I can’t explain the difference, but I think they made an impact.</p>