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Thank Heaven for Little Girls
Jan. 21st, 2007 02:07 pmWaiting, waiting as ever, for Looby Loo to come out of school, I watched two of her classmates, including her "best" friend, come along the path towards me. As they drew near, S, the "best" friend, gave me one of her side-long, calculating looks. She didn't smile, or tell me that LL was on her way. Instead, she turned to the friend beside her and said, in a voice loud enough to carry across the playground to me:
"I'm surprised that LL brought her Nintendo DS Lite to school today."
This in a tone of disapproval and forced patience. I didn't hear the faked sigh I'm sure she gave.
I didn't say anything or even indicate I'd heard.
Later, once we'd got clear of school and any passing audience (Cutthroat Lane's quite good for that), I told LL what had happened.
(In case there's any doubt, she hadn't taken her pretty pink DS to school: she is, after all, the child who won't leave an envelope of pictures cut from magazines in her drawer in the classroom for fear it's stolen. And the former impresses me because she's sensible enough not to risk her birthday present; the latter depresses me as I fear she's right--and she shouldn't have to be that justifiably suspicious.)
Now, I have to admit I wasn't surprised at S's behaviour. The first time I ever met her I got such a strong impression of her sizing me up--and judging me--that I took an instant dislike to her. Very little I've heard or seen since has made me change that initial assessment (when she was all of four years old) of untrustworthy manipulativeness. LL didn't seem entirely surprised, either. This makes me sad, both because she doesn't seem to be able to find a nicer friend and because she's having her affectionate, generous nature tested.
When I occasionally--but increasingly regularly--question the whole point of schools, their very existence in general as opposed to any one particular example, and I think that maybe it's all about socialisation and "people skills", this kind of occurrence makes me wonder if that's right, at all.
ETA: I guess due to the title and quote, the entry is a magnet for comment spam. Hence no more comments are permitted. If you're a real human (or even a real, thinking, reasoning, communicating robot) you can always comment elsewhere or email direct if you have anything to say about this post.
"I'm surprised that LL brought her Nintendo DS Lite to school today."
This in a tone of disapproval and forced patience. I didn't hear the faked sigh I'm sure she gave.
I didn't say anything or even indicate I'd heard.
Later, once we'd got clear of school and any passing audience (Cutthroat Lane's quite good for that), I told LL what had happened.
(In case there's any doubt, she hadn't taken her pretty pink DS to school: she is, after all, the child who won't leave an envelope of pictures cut from magazines in her drawer in the classroom for fear it's stolen. And the former impresses me because she's sensible enough not to risk her birthday present; the latter depresses me as I fear she's right--and she shouldn't have to be that justifiably suspicious.)
Now, I have to admit I wasn't surprised at S's behaviour. The first time I ever met her I got such a strong impression of her sizing me up--and judging me--that I took an instant dislike to her. Very little I've heard or seen since has made me change that initial assessment (when she was all of four years old) of untrustworthy manipulativeness. LL didn't seem entirely surprised, either. This makes me sad, both because she doesn't seem to be able to find a nicer friend and because she's having her affectionate, generous nature tested.
When I occasionally--but increasingly regularly--question the whole point of schools, their very existence in general as opposed to any one particular example, and I think that maybe it's all about socialisation and "people skills", this kind of occurrence makes me wonder if that's right, at all.
Thank heaven for little girls
For little girls, get meaner, every day....
ETA: I guess due to the title and quote, the entry is a magnet for comment spam. Hence no more comments are permitted. If you're a real human (or even a real, thinking, reasoning, communicating robot) you can always comment elsewhere or email direct if you have anything to say about this post.
