A guy thing

Updated on: Thursday, December 02, 2010

I was aimlessly staring at my table lamp the other day when I was studying physics. I thought it would be fun and interesting to see how the wires inside make the bulb work when electric current is passed through.

Projects

The table lamp lit up a little something lying on the edge of my table: my ‘work experience’ project. Work experience is a subject in which we learn many activities, like stitching and other handicraft-related work; or how to meddle with currents and bulbs, in the girls’ school and boys’ school, respectively. I looked at the lamp again and another thought struck me. If I were in the Boys' School I would be meddling with my table lamp rather than embroidering a piece of cloth. And then a third string of thoughts: why should I have to be a boy to know that? Why is not my all-girls school providing us with that option too? Why is there this difference wherein the boys have the “guy-like” wires and switches and minimum-watt batteries to learn about with whereas we girls have to stitch , paint and learn to sew a baby dress like a “perfect” girl? Those things may turn out useful in life, but so is learning how to fix a bulb in a second!

We should be given an opportunity to learn both! Or, we should be given a choice just as our third language preference was a choice. After all, it is school which teaches us about gender equality and how we should stand up for it!

A guy thing

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