winscape 2187

sure do

When I say "more technical schools", I mean schools that emphasize math and science, rather than, say, schools offering two-year programs with technical courses only. Think MIT, not Joe's Neighborhood Technical College.

Just to be sure that was clear; sorry about the unfortunate choice of words in the first place.

True, but not my point, which was about what courses are should be taken by people who intend to specialize in math-science-engineering.

I'm fairly sure that a school that made all freshmen take a year of physics and a year of calculus wouldn't attract many art majors. (Though the ones it did attract might be quite interesting.)

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My point is that I suspect sometimes she has a little bit of an edge in getting attention-help because she's part of an "under-represented" group. It's not because of anything she does or doesn't do; she comes across as articulate and (mostly) serious and uninterested in playing stereotypically-female head games.

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The "no girly-girls allowed!" comment was in reference to an atbreastude I sometimes think I'm picking up from my female student. I think she feels like if too much emphasis is placed on getting more women in the field, the result will be that it will be overrun with women who fit the stereotypes (more interested in makeup and shopping than technical trivia, e.g.). I sympathize but think this is probably not a good atbreastude.

snip -- I think we're reaching a point of diminishing returns on some of this

Yes. That maybe it's something inherent, or it's the result of something else that affects "everywhere". "Everywhere" here actually probably means "in US universities" anyway.

A hundred years ago there were very few female doctors -- everywhere. Now there a lot. Have women become biologically capable of becoming doctors in the intervening time, or has something else changed?

Exactly -- if what you mean is "someone has spread some rumor among the students, and these are the results."

What do you have in mind?

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That's my point exactly. I know many nerds who, in their nerdy way, seem to be having a lot more fun than "normal" people.

I'm probably apt to undervalue the smarts used in gaming. But that wasn't my point. My point was to make a distinction between people who use computers as tools versus those that want to understand how they work. Maybe gaming encourages the latter view rather than the former.

If this is true, great -- that someone can be perceived as a nerd and also a hero. I was under the impression that this was rare.

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One does hope that. We try to encourage it, if for no other reason than that a lot of us think there is where the jobs are going to be in coming years.

-- B. L. Mbuttingill ObDisclaimer: I don't speak for my employers; they return the favor.