This week I received the Half the Sky book just published about “turning oppression into opportunity for women worldwide.” It is an important book about a crucial topic.
That said, the chapter on education completely misses the major potential of mobiles to change learning for girls: mobility! The huge problems they discuss for girls in getting education are all related to leaving the home to go to a school: cost, gender prejudice, menstruation taboos and embarrassment, demands for sexual favors from teachers, and even rape. (Wow!) Think of this: NONE of those problems exists when a girl stays home and uses her internet-browsing mobile to learn.
The idea that the new generation can and will learn somewhere besides and other than at school is not limited to girls. Worldwide there are many places where there are no schools but lots of kids. Here in New York City, there are lots of schools where kids attend but do not learn much because the schools have low quality and low expectations.
