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HL's avatar

My mom was a teacher and a great one but she always seemed to believe, in a flower child kind of way, that we could all be doctors or engineers if we wanted to. I think I mostly believed her until my husband and I adopted our children. Want some back up for the power of genetics? Ask an adoptive parent. Both of our kids were adopted as infants. One is social-butterfly artist that everyone likes but couldn’t make change to save her life. The other one scores in the top percentiles on everything academic and has the social skills of a lovable brick wall. I think our emphasis on education and our financial ability to give them opportunities has definitely enhanced their lives, but we have had zero to do with their skill sets.

Along the same lines, not sure if I’ve missed it but would love to read your thoughts on gender differences in education and the decreasing numbers of boys succeeding in high schools and choosing to attend college. Touring colleges with our daughter this has become really evident.

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Carina's avatar

> why on earth would I pretend that an aerospace engineer’s talents are as easy to come by or acquire as that of a skilled barista?

Thank you for helping me to articulate why this viral tweet (21k likes) has been irritating the shit out of me:

"If you have a robust skincare routine you have demonstrated aptitude in many core skills of data science. I will not be taking criticism of this idea. Girls who have developed personalized skincare routines know more about multivariate causal inference than many engineers."

I want young girls to feel good about themselves. But we don't need to tell them that shopping at Sephora means they're data scientists.

Source: https://twitter.com/grimalkina/status/1484585594059583488

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