"Thanks to my career, my daughter's Facebook friends list
includes Linux conference organizers, an ARM developer
and Linux kernel contributor, open source advocates, and
other tech journalists."
I, am so jealous right now. "but I was unprepared for the harassment to start in
high school, in her programming class."
but her mother seems to have an interesting idea of what High School actually is. "Did you not see her enthusiasm turn into a dark cloud
during the semester? Did you not notice when she quit
laughing with and helping her classmates, and instead
quickly finished her assignments and buried her nose in
a book? What exactly were you doing when you were
supposed to be supervising the class and teaching our
future programmers? "
That's hard to notice for a specific student when that's happening to 30% of the class, don't you think? That your god child should be spared, because she's female? I wasn't spared, why should yours be? She didn't get subjected to anything that I haven't gone through. At least from your description. "I'm no teacher, so forgive me if you think I'm out of
place when it comes to telling you how to do your job.
But I am a mother, and I've spent years encouraging
girls and women in IT"
and he will have to forgive you, up to him though. "Recruit students to take your class. Why was my
daughter the only girl in your class? According to her,
she only took the class because I encouraged it."
Because women are free to do what they want, and they're choosing not to. This discrepancy manifests everywhere. More deeply in countries with a focus on personal liberty. There are few male orderlies in hospitals. "My daughter said she [didn't know] about the programming
class ... Have you considered hanging up signs ... asked
the school counselors to reach out ... spoken to other
classes, clubs, or fellow teachers ... asked the
journalism students to write a feature ... asked current
students to spread the word"
It was a full class. Wasn't it? "Set the tone. On the first day of class, talk about the
low numbers of women and lack of diversity in IT"
You do not understand teenagers. Evidenced by that the teacher should single someone out to lessen harassment. "Don't be boring and out-of-date. Visual Basic?
Seriously??"
You also might not understand schools. I can tell you four things that have a high probability of being true:1. The professor doesn't have a choice.
2. The professor doesn't care.
3. This is all the professor knows.
4. There is no one to replace him.
"Check In ... Follow Up"
How many students? ~30? In one class? In the ~5 classes he teaches every day? "my daughter learned why there are so few women in IT"
They choose not to be, and because they are so few, the ones that remain are singled out. There are few male orderlies in hospitals too, despite the fact that there's an "objective" demand for them (I was furious when I was confronted for the reason. It's to help lift patients, and help deal with patients experiencing an episode.