Oh, Calvin and Hobbes

Today was a day filled with reading assessments.  It's that time of year to complete our mid-year benchmarks, which means that the students are left to complete many independent tasks.  Independent reading falls right into this category of activities, which leads us to quite a humorous moment for the day.  

One of the most popular selections in my classroom library  is Calvin and Hobbes, which was one of my favorites in 4th grade as well.  So today one of my students begins giggling while reading his selection of Calvin and Hobbes.  Of course, he snickers so much that he must share this oh so hilarious thing with his neighbors.  I overhear "ew that's gross," and "omg that's disgusting."  So I stay back for a moment and plan my attack of intervention.  After waiting a minute or so, I call said student over to my desk.  He then points out the gross comment in his comic.  

Low and behold they found the words sex discrimination.  

So I boldly asked them if they knew what this term means... insert blushing here (and no, not by me).

I quickly realize that the students are zoning in on the word sex.  Luckily we have been talking about prejudice and discrimination in class all year, so I get to set them straight that this is talking about discriminating someone based on their sex, you know like male or female, boy or girl.  

Whew!