No Freedom Day 4 (7/5/12)

Riding to the airport this morning I had a lengthy conversation with the taxi driver who by the way, he taught himself English. After some chit chat, he said, “Women in India have no freedom (or no rights).” [Sorry can’t remember which.] The driver went on to say his sister’s marriage was going to be arranged, I’m guessing soon, since she was 25 years old. His family would have to pay for the wedding, clothes for his sister, clothes for the groom, and a dowry of approximately $5,000. Next she would move into her husband’s house whereby it would be up to him if she could work outside the house or not. Good grief, this sounds just like the nonfiction book May You Be the Mother of a Hundred Sons, by Elisabeth Bumiller. The author collected data from interviews she conducted with women in India in the mid-80’s. The driver went on to say dowry is an Indian’s biggest problem.

Flight to Pune. Met Charu Mathur, my host teacher, who greeted us at the airport along with the school principal and 2 or 3 other teachers. Since many schools work in two shifts, I’m guessing the teachers had completed their teaching duties for the day…or not. We checked into our hotel, and then proceeded to Charu’s house. Tea was served and we immediately started working. Charu received funding to start an International Space Science Club and the formal inauguration would be on Saturday. My travel partner, Abeyeo Abraha, a science teacher from NC, suggested having a pre- and post-test to measure student learning. I contributed the idea of using a Likert Scale and we began creating the pre-test. Science rocks!

The kitchen table seems to be a common work place worldwide:)