Are scientists born or made?

I'm in at work early again, since for the last 2 weeks M and I have switched who takes the little one in to daycare. He gets some blessed moments of silence at home, and I get to work with time to spare. It works best if, like last night, we all get a lot of sleep and I am not in need of my morning nap to think clearly. And somehow, even though the night started of warm (80 F) and by midnight there was a crazy hail and lightning storm ripping through the neighborhood, we all slept pretty well. Ok, not the dog. Thunder and lightning make her forget she needs an invitation up on our bed and she pretty much just thinks "Sorry, guys, but I've got to come smush against you to get through this." So even with a dog in the bed, we all slept until 8am. Giving us 30 minutes to dress, eat, and get out to daycare. Luckily, I took a shower last night.

So here I am, in a dark, quiet office. Rainy, cool day. Trying to put down a few more thoughts about academia before I forget.

This came up during the workshop I did, not on a slide, or maybe it was. Anyway, it is another offshoot of my study, something that struck me towards the end of analysis, in conversation with M and others and my data. The idea of intelligence as fixed and hereditary instead of learned and fluid closely follows the notion of whether a great astronomer is born or made. I think the view of a department (as a unit and as a collection of people) on this question will dictate its policies and how the program is structured. Even how student success/failure in coursework, research or communication is interpreted.

If great astronomers are born (=intelligence is fixed, hereditary), then the job of the department is to find those who are born astronomers. The focus is on weeding out the non-astronomers from the chosen few. The assumption may also be that a true astronomer can be recognized by her/his grades, recommendation letters, GRE scores, and undergraduate institute of origin during the admissions process. In classes, if the material is "too easy" then "we let everyone in" or "we dumb down the process" and non-meant-to-be's also survive. There is research on academic mathematics grad programs that has looked at these attitudes. The notion of a "weed out" course should be common, and accepted by instructors and students. Failure of a student can be attributed to "not meant to be an astronomer" status, and quality of mentoring is largely of the hook. If you have a good mentor, great, but if you don't, that shouldn't stop a real astronomer from graduating and getting a good position. Nothing should stand in the way of

My dirty little secrets

Guess what? I have a cleaning lady. In the colloquial sense of that phrase, not like I own a human being who sleeps under the couch.

It has taken me quite some time to get used to the idea of having help cleaning house, even back when I was finishing my dissertation full time, or when A started going to daycare. But I'm finally learning how much it helps to have help with the house. I still do the shopping, and recycling, and M and I split the laundry. I cook most nights, dinners that I'm happy to put in front of A. But I rarely do dishes anymore, or clean the floors (which run rampant with dog hairs, but not, due to the dog's tongue, rampant with food around the highchair). Or the bathroom.

About 2 months after we moved here, we hired a cleaning service to come every two weeks. M would have started right on in at every week, but it took him some time to convince me. Yes, my husband advocated not only for cleaning help, but also any other help we need. He's really good that way.

Now, wonderful S, from Montenegro, with whom I speak broken German, comes for a full apartment cleaning once a week, and a few other mornings a week, just for an hour, to do the kitchen and then anything else if there is time. Do you know how wonderful it feels to walk into my bedroom and see the bed made with fresh sheets? I hope I'm not sounding like I'm bragging. If we couldn't afford the help, life would get so much more hectic and tiring. I'm telling you, for those of you who have maybe thought about getting the help, that it is one of the best things our money goes to. I would give up many other things I spend money on before this one. It gives breathing room to our family, and joy.

It means I can spend the extra time getting work done but also still keeping up with the bills and my yoga routine for my back. I can take care of myself enough to have energy for A. Which counts a lot.

Anyway, I thought I'd write about this today, because I think having cleaning help is still somehow taboo in American culture, and women feel like if they aren't completely overwhelmed, they have no right to hire someone to help. So, we have doggie daycare 3x a week, child daycare half time, I work half time, M works full time, we have cleaning help 3 days a week, I order groceries online to be delivered, and we have a babysitter we use for a night out or sending A for an overnight every few weeks, just to stay sane.

Oh, and S is the first person I've actually wanted to learn more German for. Not a local, but for the woman who takes such lovely care of our apartment, and even arranges the dog bed, I've wanted to be able to ask her more about her day, and to communicate better. And in fact, the new words I've learned in German were things like "leave", and others related to the household.