Boys vs. girls

Conversation between Amelia and I in the car yesterday afternoon. I had just picked Amelia up from school and we were on our way to John's school.

Amelia: Today in art class we started drawing nutcrackers. You know, like the nutcrackers in Barbie and the Nutcracker, that movie we have.

Me: (Frowning initially because Amelia's first thought was of a Barbie movie in reference to nutcrackers, when my first thought of course had been of the Nutcracker ballet. But then I frowned a bit deeper, this time at myself, for not having yet taken Amelia to see a live production of the Nutcracker so that could be exposed to it. But then I brought my mind back to the topic.). Cool, that sounds like fun. What does your nutcracker look like?

Amelia: Well, it's tall and skinny and it has hair on its face. I wanted to make mine a girl but the art teacher said that nutcrackers have to be boys. With hair on their face.

Me: Yes, I think she's right. I have only seen boy nutcrackers. I'm sure that your nutcracker looks great.

Amelia: Mom, can girls get hair on their face?

Me: No, girl's can't get hair on their face. You know that God made boys and girls different. Just like boys can't have babies - only girls can - well, girls don't have hair on their face - only boys can.

Amelia: Well, that's good because I don't think I would like having hair on my face. And I definitely wouldn't want to have a penis. (Silence for a minute) And another difference is that God made boys badder.

Me: (confused, I didn't hear what she had said with the word penis ringing in my ear) What? What else did you say?

Amelia: I said that God made boys more bad than girls. That's another difference between boys and girls.

Me: (chuckling a bit, immediately thinking of John, my troublemaker) Well, I'm not so sure that is really true. Why do you say that boys are not as good as girls?

Amelia: Well, mostly it's only boys in our class that have had to sign the book. Only one girl in the whole class has had to sign the book. But it wasn't Lydia, because Lydia is my best friend and she is nice like me.

End of conversation. The book, by the way, is part of her teacher's strategy for enforcing appropriate classroom behavior. I think the first time a kid breaks a class rule they get a warning. The second violation results in them having to "sign the book", which I understand is a pretty severe consequence. Signing the book is only the second of five steps, the fifth of which results in a visit to the principal, but Amelia assures me that no one has ever gotten past signing the book, so it must be an effective enforcement of good behavior.

On boys versus girls, or any other topic for that matter, I find it amazing what goes through their little minds sometimes. It really makes me wonder what kinds of insights go through their brains each day that never get spoken aloud.