Comment Re:But moving girls to tech in HS is too late. (Score 2) 334
>> No. By HS, people have pretty much already >>formed who they will be in their adult life. The >>time to get girls interested in tech in very >>early 5th grade or earlier.
That's not necessarily true.
Until age 12, I lived in a country where nobody I knew had a computer, so I was not exposed to computers as a "thing to do" until high school. Until then, I was not sure about what to do with my life.. I really liked math, but I had no idea how to make a career out of that, so I thought, maybe psychology or something? That's the kind of thing that my girlfriends were talking about doing.
Then, in Grade 10, I randomly decided to take an introductory computer course instead of Spanish. It was ho-hum until we got to the programming component of the course. The whole concept was new to me, but I instantly fell in love. :)
In the meanwhile, I also met some (male) friends who introduced me to the world of IRC, the Internet and programming. By the time I was in grade 12, I was the only girl in a programming class. I was never discouraged from taking programming because I was a girl, but I felt like an oddity. The guys were rather cliquish, and would show off their "skillz" in front of each other.. but neither they, nor the teacher, ever really acknowledged me as one of them because I didn't like playing Doom, or participate in their discussions about sports and the joys of flatulation. It didn't matter that I blew all of them away at programming and was as much of a techie geek as the rest of them!
I'm not easily discouraged, or I wouldn't be in the midst of getting a degree in math and computer science at a prestigious Canadian university. :) But I can see how a lot of girls with love for computer science could be discouraged from becoming a techie because their talents are not being recognized by their high school teachers or by their peers. At that age, this matters a lot. So don't be afraid to say "nice hack!" or "wow, you should do this for living" to a girl... it might be just what she needs to make a decision about her future. (I shudder to think that I might have wound up as a psych major.. i would have *hated* it!)
... and btw, a girl won't think you any less of a man if you admit that she is possibly better at computers than you are... ;)
That's not necessarily true.
Until age 12, I lived in a country where nobody I knew had a computer, so I was not exposed to computers as a "thing to do" until high school. Until then, I was not sure about what to do with my life.. I really liked math, but I had no idea how to make a career out of that, so I thought, maybe psychology or something? That's the kind of thing that my girlfriends were talking about doing.
Then, in Grade 10, I randomly decided to take an introductory computer course instead of Spanish. It was ho-hum until we got to the programming component of the course. The whole concept was new to me, but I instantly fell in love.
In the meanwhile, I also met some (male) friends who introduced me to the world of IRC, the Internet and programming. By the time I was in grade 12, I was the only girl in a programming class. I was never discouraged from taking programming because I was a girl, but I felt like an oddity. The guys were rather cliquish, and would show off their "skillz" in front of each other.. but neither they, nor the teacher, ever really acknowledged me as one of them because I didn't like playing Doom, or participate in their discussions about sports and the joys of flatulation. It didn't matter that I blew all of them away at programming and was as much of a techie geek as the rest of them!
I'm not easily discouraged, or I wouldn't be in the midst of getting a degree in math and computer science at a prestigious Canadian university.
... and btw, a girl won't think you any less of a man if you admit that she is possibly better at computers than you are...
