There's a New Teacher in Town

Saudi Arabian boys are in for a new experience. As Al Arabiya is reporting, female teachers will be allowed to teach starting this term in Saudi Arabia for the first time.
The change will affect more than six million students in public schools, and women teachers will be instructing about 14 percent of the boys in the school system.
Apparently “several scientific and behavioural studies” showed that having female teachers as well as male helps students learn and adjust better. Who’d have thought that being separated from the opposite sex until your family arranges for you to marry a stranger could harm one’s social adjustment.
Additionally, the studies found that female teachers make it easier to talk to parents about how their child is doing in school.
Perhaps the women will also be better suited to accompany the children to watch mass beheadings on a field trip.
One earlier this year killed 37, including Mujtaba al-Sweikat who’d been accepted to university in Michigan but was arrested in 2012 at age 17 for going to a pro-democracy protest. That should ensure those young Saudis don’t get any crazy ideas.
Students will still be separated by gender in primary school, but for many boys it will be their first experience being taught by women. Men usually call the shots in Saudi Arabia for women, kids and … animals … considering Saudi men spend a lot of their time buying cheetahs. Although Saudi women often have a lot of power behind-the-scenes in child-raising and running their family they don’t generally have power in mixed-gender public positions.
While misbehaviour and classroom antics are a fact in every culture, Saudi boys will still have to be careful not to joke about God or atheism, since publicly stating that you do not believe in God is an extremely serious crime in Saudi Arabia.
Having a small crush on your teacher as a boy and young teen can also be common, but Saudi boys should make sure not to say anything amiss, especially considering a young Saudi teen was recently arrested for flirting online.
Ain’t progress grand?
1 Comment
Actually, if you look at the policy changes since the new king took power, this *is* positive change. Saudi Arabia is hardly feminist, but all of the policy changes he made were in the right direction, letting women drive, teach, etc.