She's a Boy

Question: how does someone teach a child for four weeks and think the kid is a girl, only to find out in an embarrassing situation from other students that she is, in fact, a boy?
Answer: the child in question resembles a disheveled tomboyish Olsen twin.

So there is this kid who comes into my class for literacy time only. Collectively, I have spent about six hours in a small group setting with this child, and 20 hours in the classroom setting. The entire time I thought the kid was a girl. It’s mostly because the kid 1) has a name I had never heard of before, 2) has long blond hair that is worn up in a ponytail, and 3) has the face of an Olsen twin circa the Full House days.

On Friday the other students in my mini reading group informed me that the student in question is a boy. This is because I referred to the absent child as a “she.” The other students laughed at me and said the kid is a boy. However, they had to check with other students from the same homeroom, yelling “Hey, isn’t (name removed for protection) a boy?” They confessed to me they used to think the kid was a girl, too.

I was shocked. Couldn’t even believe it. I half wanted to go down to the office right then, pull the file, and see the giant M marked for male. How does a teacher go so long without knowing the gender of a student? Later, the kid came into class and sat down. I looked “it” up and down, noting the clothes. Boy clothes, I guess. But could it really be a boy? All this time. Thought it was a girl. Never doubted it wasn’t. So weird. But she is a he.