Python is an Equal Opportunity Programming Language

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Sun, 8 May 2016 08:22 pm, beliavsky at aol.com wrote:

> There are
> far more female than male teachers. I don't attribute it to anti-male
> suppression but to greater female interest in working with children.

Of course there is suppression of male teachers, particularly but not only
for very young children.

http://www.cea-ace.ca/education-canada/article/false-accusations-growing-fear-classroom

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/men-too-scared-to-teach-for-fear-of-being-falsely-accused-of-childsex-offences/story-fni6uo1m-1226913910688

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Parenting/Story?id=6070282&page=1

Quote:

    "I know they're thinking, 'He must be a predator or something. He 
    must be some type of pedophile. Why is he in here? He should be 
    working for the city, dumping trash, a janitor or something of 
    that nature,'" Maiden said.

Not only do parents' gender bias drive men out of teaching, but that same
gender bias influences the choices men make themselves:

- fear of false accusations of being a sexual predator;
- fear of having your sexuality questioned ("looking after kids 
  is women's work");
- low status and pay.

Most men are extremely status-conscious (if often unconsciously) and then
recognise the status (and pay!) of teachers is low:

University lecturers have medium status;
University tutors have less;
High school teachers less again;
Primary school teachers even less;
And pre-school teachers have practical no status.

Basically, the younger the child, the lower the status and the pay.

So most men simply don't even consider it as a job.

Funny the lies we, as a society, tell ourselves. As they say, don't listen
to what people *say* they value, look at what they spend their money on.
Our society says that we value our young kids beyond all price, but we
entrust them into the hands of underpaid, overworked pre-school teachers
who are practically considered drudges. Meanwhile we pay millions of
dollars to over-muscled and under-socialised man-children to chase after a
ball for a few minutes a week.


> In our public middle school (grades 6-8, ages 11-13) there is a
> programming club that is open to girls. My son is shut out because of his
> sex. That is just as wrong as excluding him because of his skin color. I
> oppose such discrimination.

Unless there is a separate programming club for boys, or mixed boys and
girls, so would I. But the mere existence of a girls-only programming club
is not in and of itself discriminatory.

I don't know about programming, but in terms of general schooling:

- on average, boys do better in mixed sex classes than in same sex classes;

- but for girls it is the other way around.


Since boys don't suffer any loss from mixed sex classes, but girls do, it is
common sense to offer girls a same sex option to let them catch up.

Relevant:

http://www.robeastaway.com/blog/boys-versus-girls



-- 
Steven