Just went to the Rocky Mountain museum in Montana and there was this guy talking to his ~7 year old daughter telling her that she doesn’t actually want to be a scientist. That she could be but she would have to work hard and that she just doesn’t want to do that. That she never would do that. How she and her sister (a toddler, maybe 3) don’t want to work hard at anything. How he thought at their age that he wanted to be a scientist but it was just too hard and like… fuck you??? Actually?
It was genuinely heartbreaking to hear. He was talking about how they aren’t even stopping to read the signs, which must mean they don’t actually care about the dinosaurs, they just want to run through it. But like yeah?? They’re small children. Not to further disparage kids abilities at all but they probably don’t know a bunch of the words on the signs, (scientific names and terms) especially the literal toddler. And why would you stop to read the signs when there’s huge, fully articulated dinosaur skeletons everywhere, each one bigger than the last?? Like just let *your children* be excited about science in a way that is accessible to them, stop being an asshole to your kids and telling them they’ll never be a scientist, holy shit. And telling them that they 1. Never work hard at anything and 2. Will never be able to. 3. Will never want to.
AND THEY WERE SO EXCITED TO BE IN THE MUSUEM. JUST IN THE WAY A SEVEN AND THREE YEAR OLD WOULD BE. SHE WAS SO HAPPY TO SEE THE ALLOSAURUS AND TO TOUCH REAL FOSSILS
If you’re a kid and you’re reading this, (or anyone) you can be a scientist. In any field. Science is a process. It is a skill you learn, a skill you are carefully taught by people who actually fucking want you to succeed at it, and yeah it’s work but it’s work done by real people. Being a scientist in any field isn’t a magical and unattainable job. You are just as capable as any PHD to participate in science. Obviously there are socioeconomic barriers and that is a massive bag of worms in and of itself. And I hate that that’s the case.
But never let anyone stop you from being curious and passionate about anything. That’s what drives science, it’s just a bunch of nerds who reached the bottom of their specialties rabbit hole and decided to keep digging.
People are curious. Kids are curious. The technical jargon comes incrementally with time. My paleontology professor researches Ordovician Gastropods, and she loves it. But a seven year old doesn’t need to know what either of those words even mean. A college freshman doesn’t, I certainly didn’t until I took her class. You can be anything and do anything forever and always. I genuinely need every person ever to know that. Stem isn’t just for the few. Science research is done for everyone and *should* be accessible to everyone.
AND AMATEUR PALEONTOLOGISTS ARE SO IMPORTANT TO THE FIELD
They do so much. They might have incredible collections, detailed dig site knowledge, volunteer in research digs, prepping, cleaning, sorting, cataloguing, etc. They document finds, they are so passionate and help in public education. They protest and call museums out when they have artifacts they have no right to in their collections. Sometimes they even have broader bases of knowledge because paleontologists can get very specialized in one topic, so they might make connections that professional paleontologists don’t. They are SO important to the field. So even if this kid didn’t want to or for some reason couldn’t be a paleontologist one day, she could absolutely be an avocational paleontologist.
Science is for everyone. For everyone of all ages and abilities and all genders and fuck that guy for telling his daughters anything else. There wasn’t anything that I heard in his rant about them being girls specifically but just to touch on it, yeah. All genders do science.
Personally, I am nonbinary and studying to become a geologist. My mom is a psychology professor, my sisters are both PhD biologists, one in microbiology, another in ornithology. They are all inspirations to me, and are curious and passionate people. The professor I was talking about is a lesbian and her wife is also a professor (not sure what discipline). Women are incredible scientists. Trans people are incredible scientists. They are doing science right now and you can too.
Reading a book or an article and telling your friends about it is participating in science education. Volunteering to sort fossil collections is participating in science. Advocating for repatriation and communicating with indigenous communities before digs makes the scientific community a more ethical and welcoming and just tangibly better community.
Everyone can do science. Every kid deserves to do science if they want to. And every single kid has a right to their own curiosity and work and passion. No one, especially their own parent, should be taking that away.
