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You mean
like the folklore that girls are lagging behind boys in math and science, so now
we're practicing affirmative action for boys so they can get into college? I
think we have to be careful about which part is folklore and which is an
educated person's opinion. Just because we disdain the "simple" ways doesn't
make them bad. In fact, a number of them may be beneficial and the very reason
we have the luxury of many of our choices today. I'm always cautious about
"grouping" approaches; I've noticed the anti-nukes use this approach, e.g.,
"deadly poisons and radiation." Too easy to slip in agenda items in what
otherwise might be a noble cause.
Not that
I'm advocating this, but one example I recently heard was that the reason the
baby boomers had such great teachers was that educated women couldn't get jobs
except as secretaries and teachers--probably had some outstanding secretaries,
too. As unfair as that was to those women, how many of us benefited from it? So
the question today would be, how do we elevate the teaching profession to the
point that we get the best back in front of the classroom?
Jack Earley
Radiological
Engineer
>Well, let's push it
out of the folklore bed!! I can remember, old curmudgeonette that I am,
when "folklore" had it that pregnant women couldn't be K-12 teachers when
their pregnancies "showed", that mothers of young children shouldn't work
outside the home lest their children's lives be ruined, that smoking
cigarettes was good for you, that tuberculosis was caused by having an
artistic temperament, and so on. Isn't this what we have education for?
To get rid of myths like these?
Bravo,
Ruth, yes, of course. This is the responsibility of teachers, and, really, of
any professionals who know the facts and can clearly see when the "folklore"
is wrong and potentially dangerous. I believe that the current folklore is
potentially dangerous because it is causing massive resources to be spent on
trivial risks, leaving more serious risks not attended to. To not speak
against that is to shun one's responsibility as a professional. We should
speak on the list, in our newspapers, in public forums, in our public
schools, to our legislators, and so on, until it becomes abandoned like the
foolish folklore that you mention here.
Mike
Michael G. Stabin, PhD, CHP Assistant Professor of Radiology and
Radiological Sciences Department of Radiology and Radiological
Sciences Vanderbilt University 1161 21st Avenue South Nashville, TN
37232-2675 Phone (615) 343-0068 Fax (615)
322-3764 e-mail michael.g.stabin@vanderbilt.eduinternet
www.doseinfo-radar.com
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