Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/17/84; site hplabsb.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!oliveb!hplabsb!pc 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 References: <482@ttidcc.UUCP> <8203@ucbvax.ARPA><457@unc.UUCP> <278@mss.UUCP> <964@mhuxt.UUCP> <1587@ihuxl.UUCP> Organization: Hewlett Packard Labs, Palo Alto CA Lines: 37 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 -- {ucbvax|duke|hao|allegra}!hplabs!pc