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From: pc@hplabsb.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.women,net.politics,net.social
Subject: Re: Discrimination against women (and teaching's rewards)
Message-ID: <2992@hplabsb.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 10-Jul-85 19:48:55 EDT
Article-I.D.: hplabsb.2992
Posted: Wed Jul 10 19:48:55 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 13-Jul-85 08:43:36 EDT
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Organization: Hewlett Packard Labs, Palo Alto CA
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Xref: watmath net.women:6346 net.politics:9880 net.social:812


	I spent 5 years as a math teacher in the '70s in an affluent
school district in NJ.  I was turned down for employment because I was
of childbearing age, hustled by my male colleagues AND by the occasional
aggressive senior.  The hours were long, as each night one must grade
homework papers and prepare "interesting" lessons; weekends are spent
preparing & grading exams & doing lesson plans.  There were workshops
and continuing education as well.  (Hmm sounds like my current job.)
The HOURLY pay was grim, but then professionals don't get paid hourly
wages; they are paid a salary to get the job done.
	Now, I know a number of ex-math teachers.  Most of them women.
None of them left the field because the money is inadequate compensation.
We left primarily because our technical minds began to rot.  Teaching
the same stuff, year in and year out (particularly math & science when
there are so many years of BASIC stuff to be taught, right through under-
graduate school), we had no opportunities to learn new technical things
or to investigate technical ideas.  The kids in the class mostly don't
want to be there (math anxiety or just pubescent apathy) and many colleagues
don't know the difference between an empty set and zero.  The teachers'
union, while it provides an invaluable bargaining tool, promotes mediocrity
as no one is rewarded for talent & effort nor penalized for laziness &
ineptitude.  The whole educational system is so inappropriate for the
majority of kids that it would take a revolution to make it right.
	I appreciate that this is net.women, not net.education/jobs,
so I'll just say that while there are a huge number of problems in the
compensation for teachers, teaching and engineering are not comparable in
any way I can think of, other than being capable of absorbing every waking
hour if you let them.  I wouldn't teach again if you paid me THREE times
my current salary.  The two jobs require very different training, very
different priorities, and very different skills.

						Patricia Collins


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