Re: Revival

Carson Graves x1507 3NE (carson@zama.HQ.ileaf.com)
Wed, 11 Sep 96 16:14:33 EDT

Judy Seigel <jseigel@panix.com> wrote:
>
> On Thu, 12 Sep 1996, Carson Graves x1507 3NE wrote:
> > The only argument I might have with Judy is that this attitude was equally
> > distributed between the sexes. I didn't notice one direction being more
> > male than female or vice versa.
>
> I may have been eliding two phenomena, or maybe there were other
> variables, including my particular students. But I noticed that in the
> early years the boys tended to resist gum printing like crazy; those
> students who took to it were almost invariably female.
>
> Though this is hardly a scientific conclusion -- maybe the reason my
> students like gum so much better now has nothing to do with change in the
> air, coming of computer printing, or anything at all except the fact that
> I know so much more myself. Since they start where I am, they do better
> right off, more success, less frustration. Which in itself could be factor
> in "revival," as you (or who?) suggested.
>

Absolutely. I think that as teachers, we tend to underestimate our
influence on students. I suspect a major influence on your student's
choices is your positive role model. Your increase in knowledge and
comfort level with the process probably have a lot do do with the
changes you've noticed since the early 80's, at least as much as the
Regan recession which (I always thought) made my students overly
concerned with financial success. Also, we can't really match our
experiences one-to-one. Different schools, student expectations, etc.

Still, an interesting concept that there was a alt-photo valley in the
early 80's between two peaks in the 70's and 90's.

Carson
carson@ileaf.com