lankybrunettepartdeux:

lankybrunettepartdeux:

To any future parents: 

Please encourage your daughters if they show an interested in STEM activities/classes.

Let me put it to you this way.

I teach LEGO robotics to grades K-8. The ratio of girls I have in my classes compared to boys is almost 2:10, sometimes 1:12. 

And the girls that come into the class, they look around for other girls, and a lot of the time, they won’t find one. 

“But why should that matter?” Because in a male dominated class, they feel like the odd one out. Because as much as it shouldn’t matter, it does. At this age, so much of what they’re told is “__ Is for boys, ___ is for girls” and they grow up inundated by that. 

If you need more, I have it here for you:

“I’m the only girl here.” I hear that, so often. And it’s usually said in a disappointed voice. 

“Oh! Look honey, your teacher is a girl!” Sometimes, I hear this, from a parent who’s bringing in a female student. And I get a smile from the girl.

“She joined the Science Club, but she was the only girl and the teacher was a man, he tried to make her feel welcome, but she stopped going.”

“Oh, do the girls make doll robots?” No. They make the same thing as the boys, non gender specific things, like animals and cars, creatures and other fun things.

“Put her with her brother, she won’t know what to do unless he’s helping her.” Lies. She builds just fine, and if she makes a mistake, which all children do, I give her encouragement to try again.

“Miss Katie, I like this class, it has only girls in it, and they all like robots!” This was said to me at a class in our office when out of some stroke of luck, all five participants were little girls.

“Oh! You’re a woman! I have a Girl Scout Troop and we’d love to have you come help the girls earn part of their STEM badge!”

Some parents even have the silly notion that LEGO is only really for boys. At least the kind that isn’t certain so called “feminine” colors or marketed about princesses or elves.

I assure you that any child with an interest in LEGO and building will gladly find something fun to make no matter what color the blocks are, I’ve seen it time and time again. 

So many parents, even if they don’t realize it, are sending their child the message that STEM centric classes/interests are things that boys will like. I need that to stop.

I need girls to know that if they want to know how to make a car go faster, or be stronger, I will teach them. If they want to learn how to program a robot to go one way when a switch is thrown and another when it’s thrown the other way, I will show them how. 

I need girls to know that merely being curious about STEM things is not only ok, but I need people to encourage it. 

Because from what I’m seeing in my classes, it’s not happening, not nearly enough.