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Re: Typical!

Absolutely. The "typical" photo is on my thesis advisor's web site, buried among his course materials. I'm a female instructor who is, even as I type, surrounded by students and dodging balls that are rolling off the tables and across the floor of my introductory lab. Since my students spend most of their laboratory time thinking, analyzing, and writing things down as they work, a photo of my lab right now would show a lot of activity involving laboratory notebooks. What is disgustingly "typical" is not the photo, but the discussion thread. Why assume that a female holding a pen in a laboratory is doing unimportant clerical work? That is an incorrect and insulting assumption, on several counts.

Dr. Vickie Frohne
Benedictine University

________________________________

From: Forum for Physics Educators on behalf of Bob LaMontagne
Sent: Wed 9/15/2004 11:31 AM
To: PHYS-L@LISTS.NAU.EDU
Subject: Re: Typical!



Wouldn't the "full laboratory experience" demand a female instructor also?

:-) Bob at PC

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

On 9/15/2004 at 8:09 AM Rick Tarara wrote:

I'm not sure what this thread really has to do with Physics Education,
BUT....if the picture had been taken in my intro lab yesterday, it would
have shown: Two young women operating the apparatus, one young woman
recording the data in a lab notebook, and one young woman entering the
data
into a laptop in preparation for analysis--and the picture would have been
the same at all four experimental stations! In other words, if you want
to
be sure your daughters get the full laboratory experience, send them to
Saint Mary's in northern Indiana! ;-)

Rick

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Richard W. Tarara
Professor of Physics
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, Indiana
rtarara@saintmarys.edu
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