Sounds like an awesome teacher! :) I am also a 26 year old woman. Weirdly, I lean toward under-dressed, but that might just be my California/ math nerd roots, and my lack of professional clothing.

I think this all also hinges on being conventionally attractive, for women at least. It's the elephant in the room — if you're going to look funky, you have to also look polished in some way.

And also, thanks for humoring me with your thoughts! I always like to think about math education. Best of luck with your book.

I agree with you on introducing new concepts on tests & on timing. That was done all the time in my college math classes. I think it's okay in classes that are higher up than calculus, where what is really being tested is whether you are thinking mathematically and able to prove theorems etc. But by then you've…

Maybe. I hate that there is an uncomfortable class element here. I feel like if some stuffy old lady had taught me how to dress for interviews, I would have seemed very unhip at some interviews I went to where sadly hipness sort of matters in young/techy companies. Growing up middle class, I had a good sense of when…

Yeah. I don't know - I'm of two minds. Sometimes I don't think they are purposely making the classes extra painful...I think they are just hard classes and not everyone is getting the support they need. They are training/conditioning students to thrive in the sort of environments they will encounter in later…

What are your thoughts on it — are you an academic in a STEM field or otherwise associated with them? I'm really interested, partly because I am a TA for a second-semester calculus class at an R1 school. (Math is not my field, but they hire extra TAs from other departments and my undergrad background is in math).…

Haha yes. This is sometimes why the "special snowflake" argument that everyone makes about my (our? - not sure what age you are) annoys me a little. I was raised by immigrant parents who did not treat me like a special snowflake. But the reward systems changed dramatically after college. This was not necessarily…

I still don't understand the idea of a fear of success! I would love to hear your thoughts on it!

I noticed that the early math/science classes were often weed-out classes — basically designed to make a lot of people fail or get Cs. The early liberal arts classes were a little more forgiving at least in terms of grades. The rest depended on the personality of the professor.

I studied math but took a lot of classes on the liberal arts side of campus. I always used to joke that I was the best-dressed person in my math classes and the worst-dressed person in my Spanish classes. It was more or less true. I wish you tons of luck — I am also in love with both math and English!

This has plagued me in adulthood. I was a smart kid, and school + college reward smarts. The real world rewards a combination of various qualities — intelligence, persistence, good social skills, a good attitude. And of course, there's luck. I think this explains a lot of the disappointments of my early twenties,…

That is so frustrating. The PhD track sounds brutal all around.

Thank you for acknowledging that there may be more than what meets the eye here. I did complete a STEM degree — in applied math from a great program. I did well, though often I felt like failure and there was little encouragement for girls or guys from our research-oriented professors. I could have gone on to have…

Writing just to say that what you say speaks to me SO much, both in relation to STEM fields & depression.

I have worked in ONE and it was a toxic work environment with no HR department. :p So, I agree with you!

It seems like she was crying alone in a conference room/office after he left. So in that case, I don't think it's selfish at all. She was taking a moment to deal with her emotions alone.

I agree that people should try to avoid crying at work, but sometimes its just an unstoppable physiological reaction to stress.…

I don't think there needs to be an anti-racism class taught by POC. I think that both white teachers and teachers of color should incorporate anti-racist teaching into existing social studies classes...

I think that your Catholic school probably could get by saying things that public schools would consider a slippery (legal) slope. We learned about world religions in the context of our world civilizations/ world history class, but my sense is that we couldn't really talk too much about what people actually believed…

Private liberal arts college are a lot about image...that's how they compete with each other, really.