Quote:
Originally Posted by gblake
Access to what?
When you wrote "the qualifier to access" you didn't include what you thought would be accessed. What do you think was/is the event's nature? How much do you know about the event? How familiar are you with it's goals, its planned methods, or any other details?
If you have been assuming that the event was going to closely resemble the STEM education and inspiration programs that tend to dominate the CD mindset (programs that spend a lot of time teaching students about STEM topics), that might be one reason we are talking past each other.
Based on what has been posted here, and on my general prejudice that libraries are not bastions of irrational, hateful, or narrow-minded thinking, I have been assuming the event would be quite different from a typical VEX, BEST, FIRST, etc. event.
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The event itself is the resource to which I'm referring. It doesn't matter what robots it has or how much money (I'm not sure what you're referring to exactly). Think for a moment that you're that nine-year-old girl. The thing that hurts most sharply when this happens isn't that you're missing some specific NXT class or a Botball table, it's that a library official told you no because you're a girl. There was no substantive reason to put her through that, because there was no substantive reason to discriminate (dictionary term) in this case. Literacy for 9-12 year olds is no more a gendered topic at a public school than it is at a public library. Pushing it into being gendered inevitably creates the opportunity to hurt more people (including girls who would miss the enrollment cap in a gender-neutral program) than it could help. Even in programs that actually should be gendered, it's on the institution to make the case as to why to the public. If this were in the US it'd probably be a legal Title IX violation.
You may want this if you haven't seen it (just in reference to your self described general prejudice, which I also hold):
"As I said, I cannot add much more, but I will add this. With the exception of Assistant Director Elaine De Bonis, none of the library staff are to blame for the boys only program. In fact, most if not all of the (all female but one) staff tried to persuade the Assistant Director to make it available to both genders. In fact my friend at the library advised De Bonis not to use "BOYS ONLY" wording. She refused to listen. Nor are Antoine Garwah and Lorraine Cantin, who head Science Timmins, to blame for the faults in the program either. Their position on the teaching of science has always been Science For All." - Timmins
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