tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493437990574291998.post8928389080255796924..comments2023-10-15T05:04:21.811-04:00Comments on The Mind of Dr. Pion: Thought Provoking ReadingDoctor Pionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12513786840852469648noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493437990574291998.post-45563730009180192182008-06-15T17:54:00.000-04:002008-06-15T17:54:00.000-04:00I thought about this yet again. I have no doubt th...I thought about this yet again. I have no doubt that women have to work harder to get respect in an academic environment.<BR/><BR/>When I was a grad student in math, the school had grad students teach up to calculus. Few schools still do this, I suspect. Among the teachees, it was well and truthfully known that grad students, on average, were lousy teachers; they had less experience and were, on average, nowhere near as good at math as the faculty.<BR/><BR/>Once, on the first day of class, I showed up very early and sat with the students, talking with them as if I were taking the class (in a way, I was). One of them told me that he had heard the class was going to be taught by a grad student but it was the only time he could take the class.<BR/><BR/>It's really not necessary to overcome this sort of bias, but it does kind of piss you off. Humans want respect. And I think that students may learn better when they trust their instructor. So I spent the last 20 minutes of each class working unassigned homework problems for the students. I let them pick the problems and did them extemporaneously, without notes, carefully showing my work like they were supposed to do.<BR/><BR/>There probably is nothing more depressing for the less excellent math students than a required math class where the grad student trying to teach you can't do the problems himself. This is basically proof that you're not going to make it, and I know that some of my fellow grad students filled this bill precisely (our school did not give a PhD in math so you can imagine our math grad students).CarlBrannenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17180079098492232258noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493437990574291998.post-33911342782628108792008-06-13T22:30:00.000-04:002008-06-13T22:30:00.000-04:00As far as the way UCI supported family concerns, I...As far as the way UCI supported family concerns, I recall that Virginia Trimble was married to Joe Weber, who had a position at a university on the east coast (where he did some infamous gravity wave experiments, I want to say in Maryland). She was in astronomy. To allow them to spend time together, UCI had him teach, if I recall, two quarters each year. And so I ended up taking GR from him.<BR/><BR/>Irvine is not Mississippi, but even when you move away from these places, some of your speech habits can follow you and it can get you in trouble.<BR/><BR/>As a New Mexico boy leaving home for the first time, the locals amazed me at how rude they were, even to total strangers. Having grown up in neighborhoods where insults mean fights, I would never consider yelling at a stranger for littering or bad driving or whatever. The other thing that amazed me was how much warm clothes they wore in weather that I considered suitable for shorts.CarlBrannenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17180079098492232258noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493437990574291998.post-6268252521083935622008-06-13T22:03:00.000-04:002008-06-13T22:03:00.000-04:00There are certainly some differences in form of ad...There are certainly some differences in form of address when you are in the South, but Irvine is not in Alabama. <BR/><BR/>An interesting perspective, and certainly one my Vet students bring with them, but I don't see its relevance to whether ideas should be rejected based on the gender of the person making it. Running a university or college is not the same as running a jackhammer. <BR/><BR/>It is a real problem when students fail to learn important material because they refuse to view a woman with a PhD as an expert in mathematics or chemistry or physics. It wastes their resources and ours. It is a real problem when threats are made based on the assumption that a woman can be bullied into giving a better grade.Doctor Pionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12513786840852469648noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493437990574291998.post-78099209486964971772008-06-13T06:47:00.000-04:002008-06-13T06:47:00.000-04:00Since I got my MS in physics at UC Irvine, I had t...Since I got my MS in physics at UC Irvine, I had to read the article on the problems of women faculty there.<BR/><BR/>Okay, I have to admit, it was fairly amusing to hear people with positions in academia complaining about their clean, safe, tenured, high status, well paying jobs. If they'd like to try the used equipment recycling business give me a ring, I can find work for hard hands.<BR/><BR/>My buddy bought three 1 megawatt ovens from Boeing. Turns out they were built into the floor. We had to jackhammer them out of Boeing concrete (higher strength than usual, a sledge hammer wouldn't dent it) in the middle of a hot and humid summer.<BR/><BR/>One of the guys wasn't used to jack hammers. Maybe he was holding it wrong. After 10 minutes, the top layer of skin came off his palms. Blisters like what you get when you walk too much. Two inch diameter circles came off; that had to hurt. We let him go, largely because he was also very afraid of spiders.<BR/><BR/>I set myself on fire, twice, one day. Should have soaked my pants in water before cutting 3/16" plate with a gas grinder.<BR/><BR/>So which is worse, filthy jobs like taking down the old Alcoa smelter, disgusting jobs like lying in dusty pigeon feces while loading rail cars at the Port of Tacoma, jobs that make you wonder why anyone ever eats at restaurants, or the ones that involve scary situations that make you wake up in the middle of the night? I don't like heights but I don't complain about it.<BR/><BR/>"Honey" is a southernism that can be applied to all sexes but is most common between man and woman, even strangers. I've been called honey, dearie, and sweety by perfect strangers (usually Mississippi waitresses) and I'm an ugly old man. I don't think this happpens in the North, so there is potential for annoying someone here, but it's still nice, clean, well paid, healthy, work.CarlBrannenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17180079098492232258noreply@blogger.com