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To my daughter's high school programming teacher

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Re: To my daughter's high school programming teacher

#101

Post by mmmooo »

spamizbad wrote: post #29
revelation wrote: post #4

If CS education in the USA is anything like here, the teacher of this class will be the unlucky fellow assigned with maintaining the school networks and other random "computer stuff". His qualification will be that of an interested layman, augmented by several one day seminars on random topics from Office to Java. There is simply no curriculum, there are no standards and no requirements, and if we are honest, the lev…

My Programming I class was taught by a math teacher (who was an excellent algebra instructor). Unfortunately he was only a chapter ahead of the class in computer programming. But that wasn't the worst part. For guidance, he turned to his brother-in-law, who was a manager of developers at Motorola. He stated as much the first day of class, boasting "You're going to have the rare treat of learning how programming is do…

I had a similar high school teacher, minus the brother-in-law, teaching a high school Pascal class 1-2 years out of college, being barely a chapter ahead. She would often state things like "you should always/never xxx". I happened to have been very comfortable with pascal at the time, and raised points with exceptions to the rule, and was told its "always/never". This lasted till next week when she would read the next chapter.

She also demanded that every line be commented, however would only take a small percentage away (I think 5 or so), if one or all comments were missing. As I couldn't bring myself to comment everything, I would just use inline asm, which pascal supported at the time, with absolutely no comments. Since the rest of the grade relied on the program functioning, I did well. I thought it was cool at the time. Now I realize I didn't make her life easy, and probably should have.

Re: To my daughter's high school programming teacher

#102

Post by avalaunch »

revelation wrote: post #4

If CS education in the USA is anything like here, the teacher of this class will be the unlucky fellow assigned with maintaining the school networks and other random "computer stuff". His qualification will be that of an interested layman, augmented by several one day seminars on random topics from Office to Java. There is simply no curriculum, there are no standards and no requirements, and if we are honest, the lev…

When I took my first programming class in Junior High they chose the teacher because she was the typing instructor, and you know, how different can a computer be from a typewriter? After all, they both have keyboards.

Thankfully I had already taught myself one programming language so I was able to pick up another without much difficulty.

Re: To my daughter's high school programming teacher

#103

Post by broodbucket »

I think this has bugger all to do with women in IT and everything to do with abhorrent high schoolers and a lack of discipline. This kind of harassment should be strictly punished and for some reason the article only discusses the culture and not why it wasn't dealt with.

At university my computer science classes are about 1/4 females and I've never seen anything close to disrespect over gender. This is just a bunch of high school guys picking on the only girl.

Re: To my daughter's high school programming teacher

#105

Post by yeukhon »

waveman2 wrote: post #69

According to the author she did nothing about the problem at the time ie did not talk to the teacher, but is now more than happy to create drama by the track. The author's qualifications in teaching appears to be zero, and her qualifications in programming seem to be that she is a tech journalist and author of a work of fiction. Why should the teacher have any notice of her? The extent of the problem is that some peo…

I wouldn't really want to get into speculating the teacher. But we do have to be conservative on this topic. There are two cases:

1. the daughter had hidden her saddness really really well when she was in her classroom (she still get A, ask why? she probably did all her homework and got 100s on her tests) 2. the daughter did show her sad face but the teacher did not catch it.

OP doesn't even address all these problems. She didn't talk to the teacher. So maybe we should just say both have problem. If #1 was true, then the mother is the real blame here. She takes the full blame.

Re: To my daughter's high school programming teacher

#106

Post by gojomo »

coolnow wrote: post #49
stefantalpalaru wrote: post #17

trigger alert: Linux user at 11 asks for MacBook Pro at 16

Also, is it common for 16 year olds to ask for a car in the US? I asked my mum to make my favourite food, and some money so i could go out with friends. Compared to "a car" or a Macbook Pro, it sounds like i had a deprived life.

If you're in a community where driving is common/necessary, and most family incomes are high enough for teen drivers to have a car – that is to say, lots of US middle-class suburbia – then yes, it's common.

There are some indications that denser-development, economics, safety-concerns, and the rise of alternative attention-demanding status-objects like mobile phones are now shifting the norms. See for example:

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/technology/2012/08/young-pe...

Re: To my daughter's high school programming teacher

#107

Post by [deleted] »

jessedhillon wrote: post #41
bangbang wrote: post #9

I cringe reading this. Since when it is alright to tell teachers how to do their job in bullet pointed letters? * Be an adult and talk about any issues, complements or concerns during the class. * Talk with them in person or on the phone. * If you wish, post to your blog after the issues have been resolved. To put a global context on the situation should be supported with evidence as it pertains to life as a women in…

One time in college, I went to a busy ice cream restaurant with some friends of mine (Fenton's in Emeryville). After entering, we saw there was just one single open table, so we went and put our jackets down on it and then got into line. After getting our ice cream we went back to the table only to find our jackets gone and some fat people sitting there, eating ice cream with their fat kids. When I asked where our ja…

[deleted]

Re: To my daughter's high school programming teacher

#108

Post by ryanmarsh »

As the father of daughters, one of which has an engineer's mind like her Daddy, this kills me inside. I really want my daughter to be able to express her meticulous deconstructing brilliant mind through software. I pray that her first experience with computer programming outside the home isn't like this.

Re: To my daughter's high school programming teacher

#109

Post by drdaeman »

nilved wrote: post #5
ryanx435 wrote: post #3

my theory is that there are not a lot of women in tech jobs because the men in tech jobs generally don't know how to interact with women. any woman that shows an interest in tech is not disuaded by the material, but rather by the inability of her male coworkers to treat her normally. I would not want to work or study in an environment surrounded by social akwardness and harassment either. the problem lies with the me…

Was there ever any doubt that the problem lies with men?

Yes. Those classmates didn't invent that sandwich stereotypes on their own, they got it from the environment.

I think the problem is not with men or women in particular, but society in general, as it has a concept that genders are socially different while they're [mostly] not. I strongly suspect, neither men, nor women are prerogative carriers of such stereotypes - although, naturally, as those stereotypes are discriminating to women, they're primarily opposed by them, not men.

Re: To my daughter's high school programming teacher

#110

Post by acjohnson55 »

Pxtl wrote: post #43

Maybe it's an age thing, but is it just me or is this phenomenon really new? When I was a kid, geeks were inclusive. Weird and horny and therefore prone to awkward creepiness, but not hostile . Was it always like this and I just need to "check my privilege" as a dude or has the 4chanification of geek culture invaded real life? And as for the VB, VB.Net is actually an okay language if you expose them to modern feature…

I highly doubt it's a new thing, unless it has evolved simultaneously in young and old people. Look at the constant debate on these forums on whether or not it's productive to treat coworkers like shit. I think the root cause is the same: people projecting their anger from their own mistreatment onto others and people looking to establish someone else as the runt of the pack in order to prevent themselves from being the weakest link.
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