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Abstract

?</p></blockquote><p id="b1e0">That’s what I was thinking when I first came to know that she needs to be able to weld a T-joint with electron arc welding — whatever that might be.</p><h2 id="53ad">It reminded me of my first year at dental college when a “simple” task of creating a one-inch-side plaster of Paris cube had the whole class flummoxed.</h2><p id="671b">We’d mix bowl after bowl of calcium sulfate hemihydrate with water only to fail at various aspects of the job:</p><ul><li>misjudging the water-to-plaster ratio</li><li>air bubbles in the mix</li><li>being unable to throw up the rapidly setting plaster to the required height</li><li>often, finally ruining all the hard work by over-shaving the “cube” on a lathe to slightly less than an inch on any one side.</li></ul><p id="ff20">Yes, we struggled, but when push came to shove, every <b><i>single one of us </i></b>had willingly or unwillingly produced a perfect cube of plaster of Paris.</p><h2 id="79fd">I explained to my daughter that there would be three categories of kids:</h2><ol><li><b>The aggravating kid</b> is the first to submit the task given and will be that teacher’s pet for a while.</li><li><b>The cheater </b>will beg or bribe everyone till one person gives in and helps him cheat. The teachers know this and fail the kid if they hate him and pass him if they like him. Or vice-versa. It depends on the teacher.</li><li><b>The middlers </b>struggle and curse, but get the job done all by themselves.</li></ol><p id="109b">Where my example fails is: making plaster of Paris cubes might have been boring and exhausting, but it wasn’t <b><i>dangerous</i></b>. Welding looks dangerous.</p><h2 id="3860">Standing in front of what the teacher said was 6000 degrees of heat sounded dangerous and looked scary as hell.</h2><p id="ca55">As hot as hell, too.</p><p id="90ef">So much so, that when the instructor read her face and said, “this is why it isn’t fun to teach engineering to a girl” — she neither took the bait nor rose to the occasion.</p><p id="a8d8">She quailed, saying that she “couldn’t!” and she <b><i>ran away, </i></b>reinforcing the stereotype of the girly girl who

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doesn’t like metalworking.</p><h2 id="d8d9">I should have prepared her!</h2><p id="37a4">What I ought to have done, of course, as a <i>parent</i>, was to have looked over the college syllabus before she left for college, found the task toughest for her (the electron-arc t-joint welding), taken her to the industrial training institute behind my dental clinic, and requested the chap there to show her how to weld.</p><p id="5c8d">I’ve done his root canal, he would have happily agreed to take the edge off my daughter’s fear of welding. Instead of using my goodwill here in Jamshedpur to help my daughter with an almost-impossible task, I’ve cast her out into the big bad world and told her to learn how to weld <i>off a YouTube video.</i></p><p id="c9e2">What do you think? Will she get it done on her own steam without grievous injury to self and the instructor?</p><p id="e4be">I’m not feeling very lucky here!</p><figure id="4700"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*[email protected]"><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/onRDf3gYsU8?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=view-photo-on-unsplash&utm_campaign=unsplash-ios">Surya Prakash on Unsplash</a>. Most welding in India happens without safety equipment. Fortunately, my daughter’s college uses welding masks, gloves, shields and coats.</figcaption></figure><h2 id="169d">*Teachers who were stricter thought it was good for a student to be failed when they couldn’t do what the test entailed.</h2><p id="9613">That was the only way they would learn the job and be able to make money as a dentist.</p><h2 id="1f0e">**Strictly speaking, plaster of Paris can be dangerous if you try and eat the dry powder or drink a setting liquid.</h2><p id="298e">It will set inside your stomach using whatever water it finds. That would literally give you bowels as hard as a statue.</p><p id="424a">Alternatively, if someone pours setting plaster over their nostrils it would suffocate them. These are extreme examples, but hey, I did say strictly speaking. We live in a world where teenagers eat Tide pods.</p></article></body>

Weld Like a Girl

“This is Why Teaching Engineering To Girls Isn’t Any Fun.”

Are accidents accidental?

There was a parenting book I once read that took offence with the word “accident.” Dr Benjamin Spock wrote that “accident” was often a word used to cover up a mistake that would have been prevented if the person who caused it had been following mandated safety rules and was trained correctly. Back then, I was mom to a 6.5-pound baby. I devoured the book until the baby cried and I had to “put down the book and pick up the baby.”

Now? My “baby” is eighteen.

One fortnight ago, she left our home in Jamshedpur for college in New Delhi.

My daughter picked this campus because they have a great computer science program and she loves to code. Coding is fine, but since she wants a computer engineering degree, in her first semester, she’s gotta weld.

Learning that she’d have to weld was a shock for her and me.

I wasn’t expecting her to have to deal with iron and flying sparks of heat.

I’d been steeling myself for her eating way more ramen noodles than is healthy: yes, this I expected. Maybe she’d even get some finger tenosynovitis from too much typing and coding!

However, having to hold a shield like Captain America while maybe swinging a hammer-like Thor?

My hundred-pound daughter, eyes partly masked by a Man-In-The-Iron-Mask- like helmet, hold a staggeringly heavy, ugly, brown shield — while working with something that spits fire?

Shudder!

She doesn’t even know how to strike a match! How EVER will she be able to weld?

That’s what I was thinking when I first came to know that she needs to be able to weld a T-joint with electron arc welding — whatever that might be.

It reminded me of my first year at dental college when a “simple” task of creating a one-inch-side plaster of Paris cube had the whole class flummoxed.

We’d mix bowl after bowl of calcium sulfate hemihydrate with water only to fail at various aspects of the job:

misjudging the water-to-plaster ratio
air bubbles in the mix
being unable to throw up the rapidly setting plaster to the required height
often, finally ruining all the hard work by over-shaving the “cube” on a lathe to slightly less than an inch on any one side.

Yes, we struggled, but when push came to shove, every single one of us had willingly or unwillingly produced a perfect cube of plaster of Paris.

I explained to my daughter that there would be three categories of kids:

The aggravating kid is the first to submit the task given and will be that teacher’s pet for a while.
The cheater will beg or bribe everyone till one person gives in and helps him cheat. The teachers know this and fail the kid if they hate him and pass him if they like him. Or vice-versa. It depends on the teacher.*
The middlers struggle and curse, but get the job done all by themselves.

Where my example fails is: making plaster of Paris cubes might have been boring and exhausting, but it wasn’t dangerous*. Welding looks dangerous.

Standing in front of what the teacher said was 6000 degrees of heat sounded dangerous and looked scary as hell.

As hot as hell, too.

So much so, that when the instructor read her face and said, “this is why it isn’t fun to teach engineering to a girl” — she neither took the bait nor rose to the occasion.

She quailed, saying that she “couldn’t!” and she ran away, reinforcing the stereotype of the girly girl who doesn’t like metalworking.

I should have prepared her!

What I ought to have done, of course, as a parent, was to have looked over the college syllabus before she left for college, found the task toughest for her (the electron-arc t-joint welding), taken her to the industrial training institute behind my dental clinic, and requested the chap there to show her how to weld.

I’ve done his root canal, he would have happily agreed to take the edge off my daughter’s fear of welding. Instead of using my goodwill here in Jamshedpur to help my daughter with an almost-impossible task, I’ve cast her out into the big bad world and told her to learn how to weld off a YouTube video.

What do you think? Will she get it done on her own steam without grievous injury to self and the instructor?

I’m not feeling very lucky here!

Photo by Surya Prakash on Unsplash. Most welding in India happens without safety equipment. Fortunately, my daughter’s college uses welding masks, gloves, shields and coats.

*Teachers who were stricter thought it was good for a student to be failed when they couldn’t do what the test entailed.

That was the only way they would learn the job and be able to make money as a dentist.

**Strictly speaking, plaster of Paris can be dangerous if you try and eat the dry powder or drink a setting liquid.

It will set inside your stomach using whatever water it finds. That would literally give you bowels as hard as a statue.

Alternatively, if someone pours setting plaster over their nostrils it would suffocate them. These are extreme examples, but hey, I did say strictly speaking. We live in a world where teenagers eat Tide pods.