[LMB] OT: Gender Roles

[Harvey Fishman]

------ Original Message ------
From: "WILLIAM A WENRICH" <wawenri at msn.com>
To: "Discussion of the works of Lois McMaster Bujold." 
<lois-bujold at lists.herald.co.uk>
Bcc: fishman at panix.com
Sent: 9/27/2021 12:55:31 PM
Subject: Re: [LMB] OT: Gender Roles

>It goes along with “only girls take Home economics and only boys take shop”. I was denied an office typing class by not being a girl. After they found out that I was academic track, they used that as an excuse.
>For the record, think both boys and girls should be required to Take  both. They
>
>William A Wenrich
>
>   *    A sinner, utterly dependent on God’s grace.
>
I took typing in Junior High School, one of the best things that ever 
happened to me, through a strange set of circumstances. I was in the 
first class of a new Junior High School and in the Special Progress 
class (three years in two). There were 120 of us in the four SP classes, 
and at that time New York City had a strange rule - all High School 
classes could only be taught by a teacher with a special High School 
License. Since there were so few of us, it led to some strange class 
assignments. The core curricula of English, Social Studies, Math, and 
Science were covered, but then things got interesting. There were no 
teachers qualified to teach us Art or Music or other Liberal Arts, so we 
got lots of Shop; I had Wood Shop, Metal Shop, Printing Shop, and 
Ceramics Shop. The girls had lots of Cooking and Home Economics and 
such. Both boys and girls had Typing though. I HATED it at the time, but 
in later years I never regretted it. This was in the early 1950s, well 
before the age of computers so it was odd. But it led to my parents 
buying me a typewriter so that all my class assignments were neatly 
typed.

Harvey
>