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" 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. "

Eileen Pollack

High School

Parents

School

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

" Figuring out why people who choose not to do something don't in fact do it is like attempting to interview the elves who live inside your refrigerator but come out only when the light is off. "

" 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! "

" 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. "

" 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? "

" 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. "

" The most powerful determinant of whether a woman goes on in science might be whether anyone encourages her to go on. "

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

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

" 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. "

" If there's a stereotype that you're not supposed to be good at something, that still gets so badly in your way of concentrating. "

" When you have different kinds of scientific and mathematical minds approaching problems, you will get more solutions. This leads to more innovation and more creative design. "

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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

" 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. "

" If you're a white male growing up in this society, you're constantly receiving encouragement to go on in science in the form of all the images that you're receiving. "

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

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

" 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

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

" For the individual and for society, the more diversity you have in a field means more ways of solving a problem as well as more creativity and originality. "

" 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 I was in seventh grade, I was bored out of my mind. We seemed to be learning the same things over and over in science and math, and two of the boys in my class were allowed to move ahead into these advanced classes, but I wasn't allowed because I was a girl. "

" 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. "