You just might be on to something. At that age, my daughter's very good teacher was transferred and her grades slipped. The school wanted to put her into tutoring, I agreed. I also purchased many pc math tutors for home pc. By the end of the next year, she was ahead a grade. In the meantime, I bought her a telescope and we studied Astronomy, as well as, math at home. I knew she loved stars and I found a real world application for math. She did fine. She's now in AP Trig in the 10th grade, looking forward to Calc. Apply, Apply, Apply
Yeah, Baby!!! This thread hit home so much, I wanted to post as an anonymous coward...login can come later. Are we female? Using Linux? Out here? Learning code? Writing code? WAY! Yeah, we're here. DUH! I should preface this with some background. I'm 35 and the pc was a burgeoning, "luxury" item in my teens. Played some games on a "Trash 80", belonging to a family member who would spend hours! programming the thing to do simple accounting. I thought, "Why not, just... Do it!?!" It took 10 times as long to program the damned thing to perform the function, as it did to do it on paper. Get the job done - Female thinking. Several years passed, pc's became more functional and I saw them as a tool that I could use, to get the job done; faster. Pretty soon, I could "see" what I needed my pc to do...but there was no readily available application. If there's command lines that tell this thing what to do, then I *should* be able to instruct it. Eureka! That's the "WHY?" you spend 10x hours writing code to perform a function!!! Since that day, I've been able to make a box "do" whatever I want. That's the important difference between men and women, I think. A man will work on something, to figure out *how* it works. A woman will work on something, to *make* it work for her purpose. Women generally do better with applied learning. How does the process relate to day to day and long term functioning. They're the keeper of the species, if you will. Somehow, it has to apply to the needs of the group, as well as, the needs of the one. Exposure has EVERYHING to do with perspective! I was exposed to people who wrote code, I knew it was possible. I have been told, "You can't do that." Wanna bet? I have moved from restrictive environments, to totally supportive environs. Scrapped a mate, structures and jobs to place myself in a position where my opinions, viewpoints and experiences are valued and respected. It has NOT been easy! I now find myself a part of the IT community and I'm loving it. I can be smart, beautiful, open, funny and ACT smart. I'm not treated as some freak of nature. I never thought I was; but others did. Women have a tendency to use others around them as a mirror. We're very social creatures and measure our "worth" as it applies to the group. If the group tells us we don't cut it, we don't belong; we ACCEPT the evaluation. Even the strong ones, who KNOW they have alot to offer, will wither in that kind of atmosphere. I'm on my own here, avidly seeking role models. I have raised a daughter in my own image. She's currently a high school sophmore with some college credits. She has NO idea what she wants to choose as a major, because the predominantly "female" fields lack appeal. I've encouraged her to take HEAVY math and science course loads, where she excels. She's also model material, vibrant, out-going and very popular. Definitely NOT your stereo-typical physicist. Many of whom, are not paid very well and seem to lack career choices. I've had enough time to get comfortable with the idea that I'm "different" and don't fit the mold. It's taken 20 long, hard years and I still have far to go. Only now, have I found a "niche", and the powers that be, want to steer me towards management. I have great technical skills, yet I'm REALLY valued for my soft skills. Admiral Grace Hopper. WHAT a woman!!! (COBOL) She has accomplished SO much in both the military, as well as, computing. "You've come a long way, baby!" To quote an old Virginia Slims ad. The original theme to this thread was women in Open Source and big names. Torvald is just now becoming a big name. It's not the fame, it's not about setting ourselves apart. Most of us who use linux, unix or ANY OS don't care about BEING different(female). We've ALWAYS been "different"! To us, it's MORE about BELONGING, acheiving goals and getting the work done. I don't want "special" treatment and I DON'T appreciate Nazi Femmes who demand it. I'm literate, well-read, self-motivated, divorced, heterosexual, non-surgical, approve of men, have a child, in a committed relationship, caucasion, in full command of my body parts, and I JUST happen to be female. I don't want to be different, I just wanna be me. Geez! It's pretty easy for the world to accept a geek GUY!!! Don't you s'pose there's a femme counterpart!?! EU,(male) "Wow, it's REALLY nice to get a woman on tech support. ESPECIALLY, one who speaks English!" Tech, "We ALL speak English, just different flavors." By the way, I find Linuxchix uninformative, egotistical, shallow and lame. I'm far more interested in sites where I'll actually LEARN something! The ones indicating just how "SPECIAL" the founders are, JUST because they're female, are a waste of bandwidth. Perspective from a Newbie Linux Chick, 6 mos., learning Perl, who recently joined the ranks in IT. Whom, by the way, showed the long-term UNIX boyfriend how to double his through-put in KPPP, 'cause I READ the Admin notes.
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You just might be on to something. At that age, my daughter's very good teacher was transferred and her grades slipped. The school wanted to put her into tutoring, I agreed. I also purchased many pc math tutors for home pc. By the end of the next year, she was ahead a grade. In the meantime, I bought her a telescope and we studied Astronomy, as well as, math at home. I knew she loved stars and I found a real world application for math. She did fine. She's now in AP Trig in the 10th grade, looking forward to Calc. Apply, Apply, Apply
Yeah, Baby!!! This thread hit home so much, I wanted to post as an anonymous coward...login can come later. Are we female? Using Linux? Out here? Learning code? Writing code? WAY! Yeah, we're here. DUH! I should preface this with some background. I'm 35 and the pc was a burgeoning, "luxury" item in my teens. Played some games on a "Trash 80", belonging to a family member who would spend hours! programming the thing to do simple accounting. I thought, "Why not, just... Do it!?!" It took 10 times as long to program the damned thing to perform the function, as it did to do it on paper. Get the job done - Female thinking. Several years passed, pc's became more functional and I saw them as a tool that I could use, to get the job done; faster. Pretty soon, I could "see" what I needed my pc to do...but there was no readily available application. If there's command lines that tell this thing what to do, then I *should* be able to instruct it. Eureka! That's the "WHY?" you spend 10x hours writing code to perform a function!!! Since that day, I've been able to make a box "do" whatever I want. That's the important difference between men and women, I think. A man will work on something, to figure out *how* it works. A woman will work on something, to *make* it work for her purpose. Women generally do better with applied learning. How does the process relate to day to day and long term functioning. They're the keeper of the species, if you will. Somehow, it has to apply to the needs of the group, as well as, the needs of the one. Exposure has EVERYHING to do with perspective! I was exposed to people who wrote code, I knew it was possible. I have been told, "You can't do that." Wanna bet? I have moved from restrictive environments, to totally supportive environs. Scrapped a mate, structures and jobs to place myself in a position where my opinions, viewpoints and experiences are valued and respected. It has NOT been easy! I now find myself a part of the IT community and I'm loving it. I can be smart, beautiful, open, funny and ACT smart. I'm not treated as some freak of nature. I never thought I was; but others did. Women have a tendency to use others around them as a mirror. We're very social creatures and measure our "worth" as it applies to the group. If the group tells us we don't cut it, we don't belong; we ACCEPT the evaluation. Even the strong ones, who KNOW they have alot to offer, will wither in that kind of atmosphere. I'm on my own here, avidly seeking role models. I have raised a daughter in my own image. She's currently a high school sophmore with some college credits. She has NO idea what she wants to choose as a major, because the predominantly "female" fields lack appeal. I've encouraged her to take HEAVY math and science course loads, where she excels. She's also model material, vibrant, out-going and very popular. Definitely NOT your stereo-typical physicist. Many of whom, are not paid very well and seem to lack career choices. I've had enough time to get comfortable with the idea that I'm "different" and don't fit the mold. It's taken 20 long, hard years and I still have far to go. Only now, have I found a "niche", and the powers that be, want to steer me towards management. I have great technical skills, yet I'm REALLY valued for my soft skills. Admiral Grace Hopper. WHAT a woman!!! (COBOL) She has accomplished SO much in both the military, as well as, computing. "You've come a long way, baby!" To quote an old Virginia Slims ad. The original theme to this thread was women in Open Source and big names. Torvald is just now becoming a big name. It's not the fame, it's not about setting ourselves apart. Most of us who use linux, unix or ANY OS don't care about BEING different(female). We've ALWAYS been "different"! To us, it's MORE about BELONGING, acheiving goals and getting the work done. I don't want "special" treatment and I DON'T appreciate Nazi Femmes who demand it. I'm literate, well-read, self-motivated, divorced, heterosexual, non-surgical, approve of men, have a child, in a committed relationship, caucasion, in full command of my body parts, and I JUST happen to be female. I don't want to be different, I just wanna be me. Geez! It's pretty easy for the world to accept a geek GUY!!! Don't you s'pose there's a femme counterpart!?! EU,(male) "Wow, it's REALLY nice to get a woman on tech support. ESPECIALLY, one who speaks English!" Tech, "We ALL speak English, just different flavors." By the way, I find Linuxchix uninformative, egotistical, shallow and lame. I'm far more interested in sites where I'll actually LEARN something! The ones indicating just how "SPECIAL" the founders are, JUST because they're female, are a waste of bandwidth. Perspective from a Newbie Linux Chick, 6 mos., learning Perl, who recently joined the ranks in IT. Whom, by the way, showed the long-term UNIX boyfriend how to double his through-put in KPPP, 'cause I READ the Admin notes.