Chat thread - come chat, rant, or celebrate, here!

Oh yeah I know about cakes, kittens all that shit. But I just can't get my laundry white, it's heartbreaking, what is that washing powder LRD I must know.

Can I rant again? About someone who has thanked "mums" for their delicious baking and how he doesn't know what goes into cakes because he is a man.

Nnnnnggghhhh!

Thanks all

No, I don't think they do. And the thing is, 9 times out of 10 it is a bloke that people can think of for the role (we have a lot of requirements for a little bit of work for highly experienced people, mostly who we already know, so the cycle perpetuates) so I'm sure there's nothing "unreasonable" about it in their minds.

Men the default, as usual.

Doctrine it is so "othering" and excluding isn't it?

Good coming over Doctrine

Kim that's good to hear. I realise that my teenage years were bliss compared to some others

Rant coming up...

Sat in a meeting today with someone trying to sell me/my company a membership. He produced an example of a recent members' event attendee list, maybe 20-25 people.

Every. Single. One. Was. Male.

I am so fucking depressed about being the only non-admin female in my office, the only woman in most meetings, hearing my colleagues talk about finding the right "bloke" for a role, going to a general industry event with 50 people)and no other women ie 2% female and immediately after going to an event specifically for women in my industry which had four men and forty women present ie. 10% male.

Send cheese and the good please.

...End of rant.

kim I had lots of issues at home (DV, EA father) but I don't think my teachers would have really noticed. I was outwardly well behaved, apart from absences (I wrote the 'sick' notes) and not handing in homework. Oh, and I had 2 guardians within the space of 3 months - I would have liked one of the teachers to ask me about it. Am I right to think that now pastoral care is much better, so kids are probably better supported?

I've just started at uni (aged 41) and I love being around my fellow students - the youngest is 17. They have no idea how lovely they are.

I was good at maths at school but lacked confidence - I did my O level a year early and got a C at retake. I skipped my A levels including maths.

A few years ago I took an OU course equivalent to A level standard, and so did my DH. He told me he was a natural mathematician... so he didn't give his workings or answer the questions about learning.

We both passed but I beat him :) I never tire of reminding him.

My DNiece loves maths and wants to do a maths degree - I'm very proud of her.

Bringing it back to women, I found the girls always needed constant reassurance, they would bring every discovery to your attention for your approval. The boys very seldom did

Kim, we used to play a game called go fishing we also had all these giant sized animals 10 x 10 of various animals all approx 15 inches high. (absolute horror to cart around 100 various plastic animals in tubs!) the younger children had coloured hoops and the large animals to help with division and because they were large it meant they could move and handle things, work in groups and actually see and feel. Only after we had divided them would we start to add visual number representation. It worked well even for pre-school age group who grasped the underlying concept quickly.

I'd love to know about the study Kim because I'm sure that the lower ability children really started to enjoy the more hands on approach and some of them started to make leaps with their confidence too.

doyouwantfrieswiththat, I heard about that on the radio, some tribes and cultures have far fewer words including words for colours. I'll have a look at the link.

I like the sharks idea Kim I also find that sums with smarties can be very motivational.

how about this?

Mini did you see the programme about the people who have no recognition/concept of the colour green here

we are limited to some extent by our language and I find it fascinating how much a language tells you about the person that speaks it...slight digression

I may have to google that LRD

On another note (no pun) ds1 has a good ear for music and I learn things well when they are set to music but otherwise very visual- spatial-kinaesthetic.

Pattern recognition/association again I suppose.

Don't they say that humans have always counted long before we had acquired verbal language and that there is a finite number of objects we can see without counting. Something like 5.

NLP = neuro-linguistic programming

DS hated chunking! but he had already mastered the traditional method. I'm a visual spatial person, so I draw diagrams instead of taking notes, I forget things I hear but remember almost everything I read! we are all so different and there are always areas of overlap.

I think you have hit upon something there, with the toys. Of course parents are under pressure to buy pink gizmos because our economy relies upon the message getting through that children need these things.

Kim, so true, even when we are good at things we seem unable to overcome the conditioning.