The 3rd graders I subbed for today got dictionaries. A lady came in and gave all of the kids in the 3rd grade brand new dictionaries to keep forever. They were thrilled. When they found out it was free, they actually cheered.
So I had a hard time steering them back to work throughout the day. I was always asking them to put their dictionaries away.
After lunch, I'm doing read-aloud in Fablehaven. I love that she reads this every year. I always get to read the good stuff!
I only got to read a page and a half. A girl came up to me while I was reading and brought her dictionary up with her.
She said, "That boy and that girl are showing everybody this word," she showed me the word sex, "and making everyone look at it and giggling about it. I'm really uncomfortable with it."
I told her I'd deal with it in a bit after I read, especially since talking to someone right after the person who told you just talked to you is really awkward for the teller.
So I kept on reading, planning to talk to them after read-aloud one on one.
Then, about 3 more girls come up and complain about the same thing. Showing me the word in the dictionary and saying they were uncomfortable with how the kids were talking about it and giggling about it. Kudos to them for talking to me about it, though!
I decided to finish the paragraph and handle it as a bigger class than just one on one, since apparently they were bugging a LOT of people.
I said a little prayer so that I'd say the right things and got their attention.
I said I needed them to be serious and listen to me for a minute. I told them to put the books down, turn and face me, and listen carefully. -they actually obeyed. I think I had them intrigued-
Then I said, "I've heard that a couple of you are turning to the word sex in the dictionary and making people feel awkward."
Every spine stiffened.
"I also know that in your dictionary it only talks about meaning gender, or male or female. Words can have more than one meaning. There's this word which is another word for gender and there's what you've all heard about which is a very sacred thing between a husband and wife."
A kid raised his hand and said, "Why couldn't they have just said gender?"
I said, "Because this word still means gender. It's just like curse words, for example. They have two very different meanings. And one of them is something we don't say and the other is a very normal thing."
A kid chimed in and said, "Like how the a-word means donkey!"
"Exactly. They mean things that are normal and every day and also something that we shouldn't talk about. Curse words came because someone once decided that they would use the word to be mean and call names. If I were to call Juan a monkey and decided that was the new swear word, we could change how we view the word monkey in years to come." the kids laughed and said monkey to themselves. "Sex means two different things. One is gender, and the other is something that we need to keep special and sacred for husbands and wives.
And those of you who are giggling about it and making people feel uncomfortable know who you are. You know it's making them uncomfortable, so please don't do that. Don't do things that make others uncomfortable."
Then a girl said, "Why did God make bad words and even sin?"
One of those questions where if it had been my kid, we would've had an awesome conversation.
Instead, I said, "That is a conversation I would love to have at another time and place."
She asked if she could stay after school and talk about it. I then said that it's not my place to teach religion in school."
So yeah, that was how my afternoon went. :)
It was crazy!!!
And hilarious.
I was very thankful for the spirit's guidance as I talked to these 9 year olds about respecting other people and their feelings.
It was an interesting conversation.
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