Reader Response – Hannah Lafferrandre
In reading ‘Why Are There Still So Few Women in Science?’, I began to analyze my own academic history in the sciences. Pollack cites many examples of her professors and advisors at Yale not encouraging her to pursue graduate school, much less a PhD program. She thinks that if someone had encouraged her earlier on, she perhaps wouldn’t have locked up her physics books immediately after college. Academic encouragement goes a long way. I remember my kindergarten teacher telling me that I was a good writer; she liked my stories. She told my mom, and reading and writing very soon became my academic identity. I knew if all else failed, I could compose a good sentence. I don’t remember being attracted to math or science in school. I’m not sure if it was because I thought being good at one thing was enough, or because no one praised my work in the sciences as they did in the literary arts. I like to think that I was not completely molded by praise, but it probably played a big part in shaping my academic confidence. I operated out of the mindset that words were conquerable, but numbers were not. I struggled through advanced math and science courses in high school, simply taking them because I thought I had to, never delighting in the work like I did in English or art classes. Now that I am primarily in English classes, I see that they are mostly composed of women. I’ve learned that because literature is not objective, it is not considered as serious as math or science. Therefore, my studies are inferior to math and science.
Examining the way that encouragement shaped me and other women is important because it makes me want to encourage any form of talent that I see. If I ever end up teaching in any capacity, I must remember that words stick with people, whether they are negative or positive.
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