Since the Queens College reopened after the Jewish holiday, I have been working hard for 4 weeks on end, sitting in on several classes and doing qiute a lot reading. I noticed that in Prof. Fernandez's Psycholinguistics class there are many female students, only a few males, including me, a visiting scholar.
One day when I was talking about this with Dr. Kleinman, I said there were many girl students in Prof. Fernandez's class,He immediately corrected me by saying that there were many female students in the class.
On Friday morning, I was amused to see a lovely little girl about 4 years old sitting in on the Psycholinguistics class;I kept wondering where this young visiting scholar had come from. She was very quiet and absorbed in doing her own business all the time. In middle of the class, she walked to the front of the classroom and put an empty yoghurt bottle into the trash can. Then she walked steadily back to her seat. I saw a woman in her thirties wipe the mouth of the little girl with a tissue. Only at this moment did I realize what Dr. Kleinmann meant that day. Later on I found that there were actually more much older students in this class, male and female, some in their forties, they work and go to college at the same time.
Dr. Kleinmann explained to me that there are quite a few mother students in the Queens College. Some of them are single mothers, if they can not find a babysitter, they have to take their children to the college. For some other mother students, their husbands have to work to support the family, so they have to bring their children to the college too. There is a child-care center in the Queens College for the faculty and the students. The child-care center only charges a small amount of money each month. Of course, a mother can also bring her child into the classroom as long as the kid is quiet.
Now in China, college students are allowed to get married if they want to when they have reached their legal marriageable age. Some universities and colleges have enrolled a few married students. Maybe in 20 or 30 years, the authorities of Chinese universities and colleges will have to think about setting up childcare centers on the campus. The day is bound to come!
(I am so sorry to say that I didn't have time to revise my first draft in New York before I posted it in my blog. When I read it again, I found that there are quite a few errors in it. I know the revised edition is not perfect though some errors have been corrected.2008/01/17)