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…
Maybe it's regional, and as the internet makes people more connected, people in other places are more aware of it?
My high school programming course, in 1977---IBM 1130 FORTRAN 'IV'---was taught by a coach . Who, without referring to notes, nor was it in the book, one day taught us 2s compliment representation on the blackboard (and boy was it useful to get a peek under the hood!). I suspect, like in the real world, programming ability still sometimes counts more than credentials. Pity that unlike my teacher he wasn't so good at…
Heh, Louden's book? Still got it here somewhere. For an hour of nostalgic fun and an excuse to burn a Bass Ale while your wife watches DWTS, take a look at the 1130 emulator at http://ibm1130.org/sim
What kind of relationship do you have with your kid that she has to tell you important information like this via email? Does she have a dad? I am guessing NO? Honestly, just the fact that the OP is writing the letter after the class is over, rather then confronting the teacher during the class does not sound right to me at all.
How is the presence of a father relevant? The mother was away at a conference, possibly in a different time-zone or otherwise not contactable. Email seems perfectly reasonable to me.
> How is the presence of a father relevant?
If modern society has taught men anything, it is never relevant.
It's too bad the teacher was too weak to protect your daughter's honor, and ensure decency in the classroom. High school can be a cruel place. I hope she realizes those hurtful comments didn't represent her at all. It was just scared boys searching for some semblance of masculinity they may never find.
Johnny, you did great in my class. You did well in the assignments and were heading for a nice B. But you know what? I'm knocking that down to a C for one simple reason -- you acted like a sexist fool towards Susan and created a hostile environment. You're not the only one. Karl and Larry and getting downgraded too. This isn't on your permanent record...yet. Don't do it again. Grow up. What made you think this behavi…
And for the next 6 month Susan get bullied even more by all the class for being teacher's pet.
I don't say the teacher should do nothing, but this just don't work.
Does NYC/NYS have certifications for programming/CS? It appears the only NYS certification for technology is a content specific one called "technology education" which I doubt has much of a focus on programming and probably more of a general "how to use computers" focus.
Although I am from NYC I have very little idea on how their certification works. What I do know is all my CS teachers back in HS are "qualified" (however you want to put it). They either have a degree in CS (one of them does), or have taken classes and passed some exams to demonstrate their ability prior to taking the job. I was really surprised to see our math teacher did a CS undergraduate.
I assume you went to either a private HS or Stuy? I know at my high school in PA, the programming teacher had an EE undergrad but was a math teacher who happened to be the most computer literate of the faculty. Our Cisco teacher was an accounting teacher, who I don't think had any sort of technical undergrad but was the most computer literate person they could find.
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…
A little off tangent but this year I started volunteering for an organization called TEALS ( http://tealsk12.org/ ) that's trying to address this by having developers teach into and AP computer science in high school. I'm currently teaching AP CS remotely to a school in Kentucky - it's extremely challenging and a huge time commitment but being able to get students excited about computer science and seeing them succee…
I don't think that's off-topic at all. Getting kids enthusiastic about computer science at a critical age, in an inclusive learning environment, with knowledgeable passionate mentors, is highly commendable and relevant.
I am sorry to say that I assumed the author was her father for most of the letter. Her arguments made much more sense to me after rereading it with that information, but I guess it's a statement in itself that with the discussion of her technical background and her strong assertive tone, I assumed her a man. Reality: checked.
I'm in the same boat, but I don't think there's anything wrong with me (or you) for making that assumption. It's a male dominated industry, and it makes sense to make that assumption without extra information, especially when the authors gender isn't really relevant to the story.
I went to an all girls school, and while I'm sure there was bullying, there was definitely no violence or rape.
Although I'm not really sure why your defense of rape as normal high school experience managed to turn into a subtle accusation that I may have been a bully myself, and I probably should have ignored that.
It wasn't a subtle accusation, because in my experience people who say school violence doesn't happen or they never saw it happen are/were actually bullies themselves. This post just confirmed it with the nice twisting of words, 'defense of rape as normal high school experience', oh really?
I was pointing out how much, much worse stuff happens in schools than just being told to 'make a sandwich' and trust me, I would have been a very happy little boy if only that had happened to my friends and me. To be honest, starting from the author of the article, this entire thread displays just how sheltered of a life many of this community must be living to start an Internet crusade (because this is what it is going to end up when the social justice warriors get wind of it) because of a boring class with an unqualified teacher.
I experienced this kind of bullying not in school, but at work. I used to be very cheerful and helpful until in a particular work situation, I finally realized guys were randomly pinging me or stopping by to disturb me with how to write a quick unix command to do X or how to make some regex, just to see how cute I look when I'm stressed and how fast I can give them an answer. And I'm pretty good, and they joke with each other about it and keep doing it like you play with a dog. Its also the power thing, some people like demanding an answer from across the room. I totally relate to "quickly finish assignments and bury her nose in her book". Now I work in a less difficult environment, but this is basically how I deal with work now -- efficiently, then get out of there, offer nothing personal. I went to college that had a pretty good gender balance and was self-taught before that so I never experienced it before work. So in conclusion, this may be good preparation for your daughter good preparation for technical work in certain environments. There are many good workplaces but you can't be guaranteed that all your life, so dealing with this kind of thing is important to learn. You should tell her that this is a career that pays well. You may have to be smarter and a more hardworking than your peers to make up for the lack of networking, but actually the extra self-reliance that you need to exercise will make you a better and more confident programmer. Also as a woman, you need to be careful of accepting mentorship, especially male mentorship. Sometimes there's no reason for it other than the mentor wants to spend some time with a young woman.