You've Come a Long Way, Baby

Some posters have gone up around the school promoting various career paths, presumably aimed at our middle school students. This one caught my eye and made me smile. When I was the same age as my current students, my father had just completed nursing school. I remember getting some chuckles and silly questions when telling people my dad was a nurse, since at the time men in nursing were quite rare. "Does he wear one of those hats?" they might ask. I also remember being very specific about telling people he was a "registered" nurse, until my parents pointed out this was unnecessary. "Just nurse is fine" they told me. Now our school nurse is a man and nobody bats an eye.

Of course, according to some statistics I've seen, men in nursing tend to be paid more than their female counterparts. So there is that.

For the record, I'm sure they could have slapped my father's photo up on a recruitment poster like this. His beefy good looks and friendly smile would have given this fellow a run for his money. Come to think of it, maybe they did and that's why the numbers went up...