The politics of gender are alive and well in our house. It's actually fascinating to see my tweens so involved in the political process this year!

I was *informed* (ahem) that there had been a scuffle at school, with Amanda in the middle of it all. Apparently, discussions about the current primary race in social studies blew up and settled with two groups fighting it out: The girls vs. the boys.

The boys at her school hate Hillary. The girls at her school love Hillary. That's how it breaks down. A raucous exchange ensued with shouts of "everyone knows boys are smarter than girls" and ending with my daughter making a sweeping statement that included remarks that the boys in her school are complete idiots.

It was handled well by the teacher and the kids sat down and did some writing to work it through. Here's Amanda's passage:



Wow. This led to a great conversation about how she feels about being a woman and feeling like poeple think women aren't as smart as men.

Andrew had to interject. "They aren't. Everyone knows that."
"Andrew! Why on earth would you say that?"
"Look, mom, its' true. None of my friends are voting for Hillary Clinton. She's weak. She's a woman. She cries all the time. She would ruin this America"
:thud:

"Well, first of all, none of your friends can vote...but women are as smart as men.

"You are just saying that because you are a woman."

Thomas jumped into the fray:
"Andrew, I voted for Hillary Clinton"
"OMG, Papa, that is so gay. How could you DO that?"

We all had a long talk about their misonceptions about the candidates and feelings about gender and race.

"Where did you GET this stuff?" I finally said.
"YouTube"

YouTube? It's blocked in our house in the kids computer. They can't access it. It turns out that my kids get their news from their friends and wathing youtube at the libraries in their schools!

Wow...so Amanda now knows to not say ObamaLama and that he has a little more substance to him than that. Andrew knows that he'll be boarding at his school if he ever suggests that women aren't as smart or capable as men, and I know to call the school and tell them to block YouTube![/quote]