How he sees people

Lex has started making friends at school. This makes me very happy. After many months at daycare (just 2 days a week) he still says he doesn’t know anyone, but he regularly talks about kids from school. When I picked him up yesterday he started telling me about a girl named Anthem. I asked what she looks like (I like to put a face to the people he talks about) and he said she has long blond hair and brown and green eyes. Then he told me about another boy who has “a white body and blue eyes and black eyelashes and eyebrows.” His description struck me as interesting because a) it’s the first time he’s ever commented on skin color and b) he choose to tell me about the boy’s eyes instead of the normal grown-up descriptors such as height, weight, hair color, etc. After a moment’s pause he added, “everyone has white bodies.” I said “Everyone in your class, but not everyone everywhere.” He thought for a moment and then said “some of the kids in gym today have light brown bodies.” And that was it, he moved on to talking about other things. We don’t exactly live in a racially diverse part of the country, so its interesting to watch as he starts noticing these difference. I’m really happy with school so far :)

One thought on “How he sees people

  1. Kids so magnificently don’t see skin color as anything more than a descriptive element. I’m curious to find out how he handles it when he finds out about prejudices, be it race, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity, grade, IQ scores, whatever. Oooo, this is gonna be fun!!!

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