The 6th Graders and Biscuits - February 1

The unit I am teaching is City Work – and the textbook has little stories about a rickshaw driver, the labor market where people without work wait to be hired for one-day jobs, 2 professional women who have a clothing store, a woman who works in a factory –but it is not year-round work, and a female marketing manager of a biscuit (cookie) company. The question I asked was “how many rupees did the marketing manager make at her job? The answer was not specifically given so I asked them to find hints about how well she was doing. She owns a car – good sign. She has plans to buy her flat – another good sign. She gets a pension – very good sign. She gets medical care – excellent sign. And then one student, a boy with deep dark eyes, said most solemnly - ”and she can have free biscuits.” The class agreed that this was a VERY good sign. I loved it. I will now use this as the criteria for judging the value of a job – “do you also get biscuits?”