Women In TESOL: Introductory Remarks

Stephen Krashen

Presented at Women in TESOL Conference. March 11, 2016,  Clark, Philippines

I am deeply honored to be among the few males present at the "Women in TESOL conference," and also invited to give these opening remarks. But I am also uniquely qualified: You may not know this about me, but half of my ancestors were women.

In addition, some of these ancestors played a very powerful role in my upbringing.  I am, without question, my mother's son as well as my aunt's nephew (Mom and Aunt Sadie were best friends as well as sisters).

Table one shows how mom and I are similar in several important ways.

Table 1: Dad, Mom, and me

	Dad	Mom	me
circadian rhythm	morning person	yè māo zi	yè māo zi
addiction	none	Coffee	coffee
Nature	loved it	hated it	hate it

Before discussing table one I must, of course, say that my dad was wonderful. Our differences are not value judgements.

Dad was a classic morning person, with all the beliefs that go with it.  He never said this, but I think he thought that sleeping after 7 am was just not right. But he brought Mom coffee in bed every morning, and let me sleep late whenever I could.  Mom was a night owl ("Yè māo zi" in Mandarin) and I am too: I generally don't wake up until the sun goes down, no matter how much sleep I had the night before. Sleep only seems to help me when it is during the day. Mom never got enough sleep because she felt that it was moral to get up on time; as a result she spent her days trying to stay awake, and her nights trying to fall asleep.

Dad had no addictions. As a night person, Mom was seriously addicted to coffee. I resisted this – in those days we thought coffee was bad for you -  but I gave in when I was 25 years old and teaching in Ethiopia.  My life changed completely, for the better: "So this is how everybody else feels?"  And mom and I had many happy hours drinking the drink made from the magic beans.

Dad loved the great outdoors: Mom and I never saw the point of pretending it is the year 1291, without modern facilitities.

Some case histories from another field

Now that I have established my credentials, let's talk about women.  It might give us more perspective if we look at cases not from education but from another field: mathematics. I will describe the careers and obstacles experienced by two female mathematicians and then discuss education in modern times very briefly, and draw some conclusions. Both achieved great success in their work, both were able to pursue their interests, but both had help, and neither overcame all barriers to woemn present in their times.

Mary Somerville was born in the late 1700's in Scotland, a time when girls were not usually schooled. Her mother taught her basic reading so she could read the bible, but at age 10 Sommerville "could scarcely read" (Osen, 1974). At this time, her father decided to end her life of indolence and sent her to a "fashionable" and very strict girls' boarding school.  She lasted only one year. On returning home, she started reading light fiction for pleasure, dispite family disapproval.

When she was 14 years old, Somerville overheard some math lessons given to her brother, and developed an interest in algebra and geometry.  She managed to get a copy of Euclid's Elements of Geometry and studied it every night: "Her mother was appalled and shamed by such aberrant behavior, and the servants were instructed to confiscate Mary's supply of candles so that she could not study at night. However, by this time Mary had gone through the first six books of Euclid …" (Osen, 1974, p. 56).  This was followed by years of independent study, until, when she was 27, she entered a mathematics contest held by a mathematics journal, and submitted the winning solution to a problem posted in the journal. The editor of the journal became her mentor, and guided her stunning career and math and science. An inheritance from her first husband who passed away at a young age allowed her to pursue her interests in science and mathematics.

Mary Somerville became one of the best-known scientists and mathematicians in England. Her work led to the eventual discovery of the planet Neptune, and she published texts in mathematics, as well as Physical Geography and  Molecular Science. She continued to work until she was 89 years old.

Amalie Noether (pronounced NER-ter) lived from1882-to 1934.  There is no question that she was one of the great mathematicians of all time. She worked in abstract algebra and ring theory, and her contributions, according to Harvard physicit Lisa Randall, are "critical" to modern physics, some saying they were as important as relativity.  Another physicist, Ransom Stephens, has said that "You can make a strong case that her theorem ("Noether's theorem") is the backbone on which all of modern physics is built”  (both citations from Ander, 2012).

Her work, however, is not well-known. Ander (2012) quotes David Goldberg, who conducuted a  "Noether poll" of physicists:  “Surprisingly few could say exactly who she was or why she was important. A few others knew her name but couldn’t recall what she’d done, and the majority had never heard of her.”

Noether was born in Germany and was part of a "mathematical family": Her father and brother were mathematicians. At this time, German universities did not allow women students, and she could only audit university courses. But she was able to take the examinations, and eventually earned a Ph.D. summa cum laude.

She met prominent mathematicians, such as David Hilbert, who argued in favor of her being appointed a professor at the University of Göttingen, despite opposition because of her gender: “I do not see that the sex of the candidate is an argument against her.  After all, we are a university, not a bathhouse” (from Anders, 2012).   Hilbert failed to make his case, so instead hired her himself as a "guest lecturer."

Noether, who was Jewish,  had to leave Germany in 1933 because of Hitler's rise to power.  Albert Einstein helped her get a job at Bryn Mawr College.  She died in 1934 after surgery, at age 53.

Despite the obstacles they faced, both Somerville and Noehter were able to follow their interests, their passion for math and science.  Somerville found a mentor, the journal editor who helped her, and had financial resources, and Noether had the advantage of being part of a family of mathematicians, and had influential friends.

Somerville's case also adds to the considerable evidence showing that an "early start" in school is not essential (Krashen, 2014),  and that "light reading" provides a helpful preparation for "heavier reading" (Krashen, 2012).

Today's problems in education

We have come a long way in overcoming gender barriers, but problems remain.

Language education is still dominated by the views of males, and largely males from English-speaking countries, PhDs who have never spent a day alone in a room with ten–year-olds, and with little knowledge of the real world of schools. In other words, people like me. 

The cure is straightforward: A closer look at what "experts" really have to offer us, and providing a platform and journal space to more people. Conferences like this one are a giant step forward.

According to my observations, school administration in the United States is largely the domain of males with little teaching experience, males with an obsession for technology and high test-scores and little knowledge of and interest in day-to-day affairs of their school.  There are, of course, exceptions.

The cure for this situation is also straightforward. Frank Smith has pointed out that school administrators are trained in educational management, not educational leadership.  School leaders have to be experienced teachers, with knowledge of both practice and theory.

The real cure is to allow people to pursue their interests regardless of gender.  Both men and women educators should have equal opportunity to be teachers or administrators, as fits their talents and desires.  A friend of the family, fluent in Spanish, was very happy as a kindergarten/first grade teacher in a bilingual school in California.  He told me that his administrators were surprised that he wasn't interested in getting an administrative credential and becoming an administrator himself. As far as he could tell, the chief reason was that he was male. 

Grit and determination

Gender is not the only barrier to success.  There are, of course, many others. The most powerful is poverty, and we can also add minority group membership and psychological problems due to dysfunctional family relationships.  I experienced none of these barriers. Even so, everything was slow and hard; I can't imaging how I could have succeeded had I been female, poor or even working class, minority, or had come from a family with serious problems.

There is a lot of talk today about grit and determination:  they tell us that with enough grim determination, students can overcome all obstacles. Nonsense. I needed all the grit and determination I had in order to do well without these barriers.  If any had been present, I don't see how I would have made it.  

In the case of gender, women who did well despite massive gender discrimination, such as Somervile and Noether, not only had grit and determination, but, as I pointed out earlier, they had help: Somerville's mentor and inheritance and Neother's family and colleagues. We can't all count on getting by with a little help from our friends. We need to do two things: reduce and eventually eliminate the barriers and make sure school provides everybody with the help they need to develop their talents.

Sources:

Anders, N. 2012. The mighty mathematician you've never heard of. New York Times,

March 28, 2012. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/27/science/emmy-noether-the-most-significant-mathematician-youve-never-heard-of.html?_r=0

Krashen, S. 2014. Literacy education: Need we start early?  Language and Language Teaching (Azim Premji University and the Vidya Bhawan Society), 3(2)(9): 1-7. (available at www.sdkrashen.com).

Krashen, S. 2012. Developing academic proficiency: Some hypotheses. International Journal of Foreign Langauge Teaching, (2): 8-15. (available at ijflt.com)

Osen, M. (1974). Women in mathematics. Cambridge: MIT Press.