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" My brother had been given a chemistry set for his bar mitzvah, but he wasn't interested in it. It was upstairs in the attic, and I would sneak up there and use it at great peril because I was afraid if he found out, he would get very angry at me, but he didn't seem to care. "

Eileen Pollack

Angry

Afraid

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" The world is a complex place. "

" Science and math are hard for everybody, and it's usually not a matter or being born gifted at it or not. It's hard work, but it can be a lot of fun! "

" We forget how recently astronomers figured out what the stars are made of, what makes them shine, how distant they are, how they are born, and whether they remain immutable or evolve and die. "

" I miss my former teachers, John Hersey and James Alan McPherson. I would love to see either or both and ask what I could do to improve, to deepen my writing. "

" When I was in 7th grade, we were all given an exam. It was science and math, and the boys who did well were skipped ahead so that when they got to be juniors or seniors in high school they would be able to go to the local community college and take calculus and physics there. And I wasn't skipped ahead. "

Eileen Pollack

Community

Science

" If a person's self-worth derives from being the only woman in the field, how much affection can she feel toward another woman who might challenge that claim to fame? "

" For women, even if she's nerdy enough to be Steve Jobs, she's undateable. "

" Combating any kind of obstacle is much easier if you know that it's real and not your fault, and it's something you can fight against. "

" I was nearly as far behind in calculus as I was in physics. But I wasn't the only woman in the class, so I felt more comfortable asking questions. "

Eileen Pollack

Class

Physics

" I write and teach creative nonfiction. I was a reporter. "

" Writers find common ground not through the homelands they once inhabited but the thematic questions with which they grapple. "

" As a physics major at Yale in the 1970s, I developed crushes on nearly all my male professors. "

" Success in math and the hard sciences, far from being a matter of gender, is almost entirely dependent on culture - a culture that teaches girls math isn't cool and no one will date them if they excel in physics. "

" To make computer science more attractive to women, we might help young women change how they think about themselves and what's expected of them. But we might also diversify the images of scientists they see in the media, along with the decor in the classrooms and offices in which they might want to study or work. "

" Given that many girls are indoctrinated to believe that they should be feminine and modest about their abilities, as well as brought up to assume that girls are not innately gifted at science or math, it is not surprising that so few can see themselves as successful computer scientists. "

" Judging the political climate in my state by walking around lefty Ann Arbor is like a polar bear judging global warming by staring at the ice cube beneath its feet. "

" All the societal pressures that make girls feel as if they're too smart, especially in the sciences - 'No one will date them. They won't be popular.' - don't apply to boys. The boys are being encouraged. "

" If you're the only anything in the room, you're going to feel so self-conscious of your right to be there. "

" We still raise girls to look to other people for assurance they are attractive and smart, while boys are raised to determine their own value. Many girls are still made to feel it's not feminine to be good at science or math. "

" When parents ask why there are still so few girls in advanced science and math classes in high school, I tell them, because girls still need way more encouragement than boys to take those courses. "

" Most applicants to creative writing programs submit stories about the angst of their suburban childhoods. "

" Wandering the book fair at AWP is a great way to get acquainted with a wide sampling of the diverse journals that are out there and the wide sampling of people who produce them. "

" Knowing how to tactfully criticize someone's work is a mentor's job. "

" I think women need to hear more encouragement in any field, because I see it - I teach creative writing. And even though it's mostly women in the room, they're not often - or they didn't used to be the ones who went on to publish books. I know this sounds like a tautology, but encouragement is the key. "

" My parents didn't know how to provide me with the encouragement I needed to achieve my dreams. "

" In America, nobody's boyfriend wants them to be smarter than he is, and no one wants to admit it. "

" When I left Yale, it was so painful to me. I had worked so hard, gotten so far, and just walked away. "

Eileen Pollack

Left

Hard

" I don't usually feel threatened by the militias. Most members are just indulging their fantasies of being warriors without having to sign up for the Army. They want to be heroes and save their neighbors from disaster. "

" Parents don't want their kids to be nerdy. "

" If a female student wants to drop a physics course, no one questions her, but if a male student tries to drop it, he will get pushback and encouraged to stay in, since he will need it later in life. "