Boys and their toys

Every so often, I see a complaint from an administrative-type person – usually in a school setting – about how children should be treated equally. On the surface, that seems fine, but then they usually blow it by trying to create curriculums or play activities that don’t differentiate between boys and girls, and that’s stupid.

I always wonder how these people could forget their own childhoods. I’m fairly certain that administrative types aren’t hatched out of some big pod farm in Iowa (though that would explain a lot), so you’d assume they’d remember that between 6th grade and graduating from high school, they developed at a different rate than everybody else. It’s called puberty.

With so many physical differences becoming evident during those turbulent years, is it really that much of a stretch to think that perhaps boys and girls are different mentally, as well? Girls are more nurturing, while boys are more destructive; girls are more patient, while boys are more destructive; girls are more engaging, while boys are…you get the idea.

This occurred to me recently when we went to the store. I distracted Cub by taking him over to the toy aisles so Mrs. Cat could shop in peace, and he headed straight for the weapons. Usually he goes for the toy cars and trucks (which is pretty standard for autistic kids), but this time, he wanted to be armed. I guess he read my last few posts.

See, none of his favorite shows are military in nature; everybody gets along and talks out their problems, so it can only be some deep-seated brainstem function tied into the Y-chromosome that drove him to take a weapon to hand. It satisfied some primal urge.

We ended up getting him a small foam sword, and he’s had a hell of a good time assaulting us all with it. He’s even got a pretty decent technique – at least a +2 for attack and +1 for defense. I’m currently trying to teach him Conan’s mantra:

“To defeat your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women.”

Should make preschool more interesting.