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Last broadcast on Tue, 7 Sep 2010, 10:00 on BBC Radio 4.
Synopsis
Presented by Jane Garvey. Increasing numbers of children receive extra tutoring at home - but how helpful is it and could it be socially divisive? Playwright Nell Leyshon is the first woman to have a play staged at The Globe, she joins Jane to discuss 'Bedlam'. Thirty years ago China confirmed its one-child policy, artist Aowen Jin talks about the impact the policy has had on her life. And Lebanese journalist Joumana Haddad explains what prompted her to write "I Killed Scheherazade: Confessions of an Angry Arab Woman".
China's One Child Policy
China introduced its one child policy in 1979 to curb massive population growth. Since its inception the government estimates it has prevented four hundred million births. Historically sons are preferred in China and sex-specific abortions and female infanticide now mean that for every 100 girl babies born, there are 119 boy babies. Jane is joined by artist Aowen Jin to talk about her new exhibition of paintings examining the impact of the one child policy and by Harriet Evans Professor of Chinese Cultural Studies at the University of Westminster who has written extensively about Chinese women.
Harriet Evans is author of “Women and Sexuality in China: Dominant Discourse of Female Sexuality and Gender since 1949” and Mothers in Urban China”
Private Tutors
Despite the fact that some private tutors are now charging up to £50 an hour, record numbers of children are now receiving extra tuition as competition for school and university places intensifies. According to research from the Sutton Trust, over two thirds of London school children have had private coaching and in the country as a whole, numbers have grown considerably in the last five years. The financial commitment required to provide your child with a private tutor is quite considerable and yet it is a sacrifice that more and more parents are prepared to make. To discuss the issues, Jane is joined by Janette Wallis from the Good School’s Guide and by James Turner, Policy Director at the Sutton Trust.
Nell Leyshon
Nell Leyshon is the first female playwright to have her work commissioned by Shakespeare’s Globe. Her new play, Bedlam, is set in an eighteenth century London asylum, and explores a world where the mentally ill are exhibited for a penny every Sunday, as well as beaten and locked in cages. Jane talks to her about the challenges of writing for the Globe and studying later in life.
Joumana Haddad
When Lebanese poet and journalist Joumana Haddad founded the controversial erotic Arabic magazine Jasad (The Body) two years ago, it outraged conservatives in the Middle East and led to her receiving death threats. In her new book, I Killed Scheherazade, Haddad is critical of the way Arab women are often portrayed in the West as passive and helpless but she also argues that Arab women are partly responsible for their continuing oppression and hardship. As well as being the literary editor of a major Lebanese newspaper, she is also an administrator of the “Arabic Booker” prize.
I Killed Scheherazade: Confessions of an Angry Arab Woman by Joumana Haddad, is published by Saqi Press.
Chapters
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Chapter 1
Jane discusses the policy with artist Aowen Jin and Harriet Evans, Professor of Chinese Cultural Studies at the University of Westminster.
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Chapter 2
Jane is joined by Janette Wallis from the Good School’s Guide and by James Turner, Policy Director at the Sutton Trust to discuss the pros and cons of employing a tutor for your child.
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Chapter 3
The first female playwright to have her work commissioned by Shakespeare’s Globe talks about her new play, Bedlam.
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Chapter 4
The Lebanese poet and journalist talks about her life and her new book, I Killed Scheherazade.
Broadcast
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Tue 7 Sep 201010:00
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