I remember when professor Donna Strickland came to do a colloquium at Hebb building at UBC, to give lecture on her research that won her the Nobel Prize. One thing I remember that she said was how many guest lecture request she was receiving now that she have won a very esteemed reward, when she had very little before. What really hit me the most was after the guest lecture and when we were having social meeting after ward. In one of the room in physics building, we were all gathered to have conversation with the professor and had some wine and cheese on the side. I noticed that one of the questions that she was most asked was "how is it like to be woman in field of physics?" What was interesting for me was her face expression (oh, how miss the days without masks). It was clear she was disturbed by the questions. I do not know how she felt exactly, but I am sure she wanted to approached by students to discuss physics and the question only made her feel as if she was only approached because she is woman. I understand where the question is coming from, but by asking the same the question we are treating her like how she have been treated before.
I believe our job as teacher is to provide equal opportunity for all students to pursue any field. It is our job to break those gender stereotypes that students are often exposed to. We should never be the one to discriminate students depending on the gender, colour and etc. With socially constructed stereotypes and systematic biases I do not expect them to disappear over night. But it is our duty to dilute these ideas so in next generation there would be even less and the cycle repeats until they disappear, this should be our goal. Until the day where a person is judged only by their work and get proper credit for them, we should be an active model for the students.
댓글 없음:
댓글 쓰기