Funny story though, my high school calculus teacher would always tell us stories about how her calculus professor hated women in math and continually discouraged her, but it just egged her on. She ended up at the top of her class. The sad irony is that she ended up having a permanent grudge against her male students.

On a side note, aren’t politicians, mayors, and the like traditionally ridiculed for their stereotypical obesity (along with the corporate ‘fat cats’)? Just look at all the political cartoons from the turn of the 20th century.

Possibly the proudest moment of my school career was when she recommended that I be accelerated another half-year in math. If Mrs. Philbin thought I was good at math, I must be good at math.

Before my first two babies were born, I had finished the coursework for a master’s in computer science, but had not done my thesis project or taken my comprehensive exams. By the time they were a year old, I told my department head that I thought perhaps I should just drop out of the program. I didn’t (and don’t) think I’ll ever go back to full-time job hunting where it will help my resume, and I was beginning to despair that I’d ever get it done in the required time.

He told me that he’d always regretted letting a former female student in a similar position give up and quit, that he wasn’t about to see me do so, and that he’d help me work out the necessary schedule and policy exemptions to get it done. More importantly, he gave me the encouragement I needed to stick it out the rest of the way — not just for myself, but to be an example for the next new mother or female student who was ready to drop out.

I graduated in May.

So glad I’m not the only one.

Nineveh_uk

Why is Dawkins obliged to be “nice” to people he thinks are wrong.

I hadn’t noticed that he wasn’t nice. I just think he’s an ass.

My 9th grade algebra teacher was awful – disconnected, bruque, uninterested if anyone had a problem, and as a mathematically challenged (I reverse numbers, and can’t visualize well) person, I drowned. I failed the class completely, and didn’t even know it until I arrived for year two, when he expressed surprise that I was there.

He committed suicide later that year – it turned out that he was clinically depressed, and was unable to even give a damn. That and the alcoholic english teacher I had the same year (put vodka in a 2 litre 7up bottl and finished the entire bottle by the end of the day), put me off school entirely.

I’m almost completely self-educated. Ironically, I love learning, and I’m a pretty good teacher (I volunteer teach).

I recommend poking them with an umbrella. The long kind with the spike on the top. It will unnerve them more than shaking, and it gives you a three foot head-start in the event of it failing.