Tangentially Venting and Graditude

[Renee Smith]

In the classroom I am observing, the most prominent example of gendered behavior I see is how the students, when given the opportunity to work together, almost entirely choose to work in groups of their same gender. In thinking back on all of my observations thus far, I only recall one time that I saw a group of mixed genders working together. Even then, they were only sharing a lab table while each working on what they needed to do since it was a free work day. Those same students when doing other worksheet assignments tend to work on their own. Besides this self-imposed gender divide, there aren’t really any other gender “regimes” evident that I have noticed. Students of all genders interact with Mr. Wiebe in similar ways (whether that’s avoiding interaction or making jokes is entirely based on the specific student). All students expressed enthusiasm at the prospect of having a more hands on activity like the element posters they were assigned last week. I think all in all, the students I observe are not embracing the gendered expectations we’ve discussed. To be fair, this also might be due to things like how in chemistry class, there aren’t really moral dilemmas so the gendered expectations of responses to moral dilemmas aren’t very relevant. As for some of the other gender behavior differences we’ve discussed in class, such as male identifying students (particularly BIPOC ones) tending to be more harshly punished for bad behavior, are also not really applicable in the classroom I’m observing. I think this is mostly due to the fact that NONE of the students really get punished in the class because none of them misbehave in a serious way. When I say serious, I mean besides chattering quietly during lectures, which is perhaps the only behavior that could be considered bad that I’ve seen. Students that are falling behind in assignments also tend to be pretty diverse in gender, since I know Mr. Wiebe has a little chat with students when they are falling behind to see what is going on and I’ve seen him have a couple of those chats with various students, regardless of gender.

This is a bit different from the way my own gender has influenced my educational experiences, which is honestly very refreshing to see. Comparing to my own experiences, Mr. Wiebe’s classroom is very refreshing in its treatment of gender and it is most noticeable to me in two ways. The first is that Mr. Wiebe does not seem to give a flying noodle about what someone’s gender is if they express interest in chemistry. Unfortunately, as a girl in STEM, I’ve run into quite a few times where my gender made a difference. I’ve had STEM teachers who when I asked questions because I was interested in learning more simply brushed me off and basically told me to “read the textbook” (which as everyone knows is the easiest way to make someone lose all interest in a topic) while discussing youtube videos and other ways to learn more about the same topic with guys from my classes. I even was discouraged from applying to certain schools because the science program “is likely too competitive for me” while at the same time encouraged to apply to some because “they need girls”. While this caused me to develop a little bit of spite that then inspired me to do things like join programs like the Women’s Society of Engineers and Girls Design the World, it also really sucked because this messed up attitudes also impacted people I care about. My best friend in high school was a guy, also super into chemistry, who basically was told that he was a shoe-in for the University of Minnesota’s College of Science and Engineering as an incoming freshman (a very competitive thing). So, he applied and was instead accepted into the College of Liberal Arts, which absolutely crushed him. He had been so pumped up by these teachers that he was a perfect fit when (and this is also a bit of a depressing thing) he was much too well-rounded for the College of Science and Engineering. I say this because if you have applied to the College of Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota or even just expressed interest in it when you were applying, they make it pretty obvious pretty quickly that they only want “real” science kids who “don’t bother wasting time on the arts or humanities” (these are actual quotes from my tour of the CSE as a senior in high school). My friend? He was an incredible soccer player and jazz saxophonist who definitely wasn’t only spending time doing science things (nor should he have been). But this stupid attitude of adults that he was an obvious acceptance basically because he was a guy (and the fact that I was strongly discouraged from applying since I’d never make it, though I was petty and still applied) really hurt him for a while. He had pinned so many dreams on going to that school, that when it didn’t happen, he had no clue what to do and thought that none of his other options would be as great as the College of Science and Engineering would have been.

Speaking of my buddy, this leads me to the other way gender really influenced my educational experience, though this one applies to college. While my friend and I do attend different colleges, so the differences in our experiences may be due to that, a few things about how things shook out definitely appeared to have a gender component to them. So, here’s the basics, my friend and I both had terrible starts to college. For some reason or another, things just didn’t work out well for us, which meant we started falling behind on our work. My friend, who goes to a semester school, started having professors reach out pretty quickly, asking if he was doing okay and what was going on. Even though he had reached a point where he might not have been able to graduate in four years, with his professors’ help, he was able to quickly get back on track once he expressed that he actually cared that he graduated in four years. I, on the other hand, had a bit more of a struggle. For a little background, I’ve had two nieces born while I’ve been at Carleton, and experienced some medical issues that come and go every so often. When I started falling behind on work, due to my medical issues, I naturally reached out to professors. During my freshman and beginning of sophomore year when my medical issues were really bad, I would explain my situation and ask for a little wiggle room for assignments that would be due on a day where I’d be in the hospital for testing and treatments. Even though I had explained why I needed some grace time (often even just an extra hour or so), many of my professors were not understanding. They would say things like “I think you’d be able to budget your time better if you weren’t spending so much time with your nieces and then you wouldn’t need this extra time” because they had seen me getting picked up by my brother for a medical appointment. While my nieces were often with him, it was because they were babies and couldn’t go to daycare yet, not because I was ignoring homework to spend time with them. My friend, who had also often been picked up by his family members for appointments, did not receive these kinds of responses to extension requests. Running into this issue repeatedly, I simply began to not bother asking for extensions and instead tried to cram in all of my work into less and less time. Unfortunately, eventually this added stress led to my medical issues worsening and I had to take a medical leave of absence. After I returned, as part of the return process, my medical providers and I shared what I had done over my leave with the college. While it was made quite clear that I had indeed spent loads of time in medical facilities to deal with my medical issues, my advisor at the time (and my dean, which was really shocking) fixated on the fact that I also spent a decent amount of time with my nieces. For quite a while after my leave (until I was allowed to declare my major), my advisor would tease me about my use of my leave and make jokes about how if I spent more time on my work instead of my nieces, I’d be back on track to graduate in the spring of 2022. AS you’ve probably gathered, I do not respond well to these sorts of disbelief in me. So instead of getting to utilize my advisor and the resources they could have given me, because I felt like they thought I had the wrong priorities, I worked tirelessly to overload classes and produce a class plan that would help me get the credits I needed so I could petition to accelerate my graduation back to when it originally was. While these professors could have just been people being really rude, the bigger message I got from the experience was that for some reason since I was a girl, my professors thought I should have been able to handle my workload despite my medical issues (whereas my friend, a guy, needed help) and so my failing to do so must have been because I was focusing on something else.

(Example of the class plan I had to make to ensure I could graduate)

Getting back on track from my tangential venting, it makes me incredibly happy to see that nothing like that happens in the classroom I’m observing. When a student isn’t doing well or is falling behind in Mr. Wiebe’s class, he literally sits down with them at a lab table and talks about it. First, he establishes if something else is preoccupying their mental space, whether it’s family stuff, other school stuff, relationship stuff, it doesn’t matter. If something else is going on in their life that is taking up their attention, Mr. Wiebe asks how he can help. If they just need more time, he lets them have extensions. If they need to not sit by someone anymore, he rearranges. He accommodates them in any way they need, because (and I quote) “It doesn’t matter to me if a lab report comes in a few days later, I’ll still be grading stuff anyway. If they don’t feel comfortable, they aren’t gonna learn”. If nothing else is preoccupying the student and they just don’t really feel like putting in the work, they get what I have started to think of as the Mr. Wiebe pep talk. He boosts their confidence and tells them about how he knows they can do better. Even if it’s just printing another photo to stick on their element poster, or taking the time to write their lab notes a bit neater, their work pays off. He also gives students time in class frequently to do any work they need for the class, to in his words “level the playing field” since people have all sorts of situations outside the classroom, but in S-205 he can make sure they all have space to do what they need to. I think it’s really incredible that Mr. Wiebe seems to care so much about his students as people, and it makes me really grateful that even if I haven’t always gotten teachers like that, that there is at least one in Northfield high school.

[Logan Robinson]

Renee,

Thanks for this thoughtful response and for opening up about your experiences. I am sorry, and sadly not surprised, to hear that you haven’t had as great of an experience with gender in the STEM classroom. It definitely makes one wonder how many more females we’d have in STEM if they were encouraged to ask questions and pursue STEM instead of forced to do everything on their own. It also makes me sad that often STEM is a field in which being well-rounded is almost discouraged as you mentioned. I am also very sorry to hear that your professors were so unhelpful or accommodating during a time when you needed it.

In response to your identification of students’ self-selected groups tending to be gendered. That is definitely something I often see in classrooms. I also find it interesting that often even in my classes here groups end up being gendered. It is nice to hear though that Mr. Wiebe seems to do a good job of not gendering the students in things like discipline, etc and also just accepting them. The fact that he is able to account for outside factors in his students lives is, I agree, very refreshing and makes me happy! Teachers are such critical adults in students’ lives who are in a role to be able to help and be an extra sounding board, so I am glad you found one who is.

[Author]

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