GENDER DYNAMICS IN CLASSROOM

Mixed seating arrangements are but a start to a generation with healthier relationships

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Had you walked into a lecture hall in any medical college in the early 2000s or earlier, you would see male students on one side and women on the other. The gender norms were rarely flouted in the classroom. That generation — my generation — feared the professors. Scared that they might think bad about us and our “wayward” priorities, and most important, fail us. Somewhere along the line, while I was busy getting older and settling down, it all changed. Changed for good, I believe.

Walking into a class in the role of a teacher now, it still catches me off-guard sometimes when I see the mixed classroom mixed in every way. Everywhere, on every bench sit men flanked by women or the other way round. The centuries-old Indian tradition of separation between genders is changing, and the rulebook is being rewritten with shiny new dictums.