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From the Editor

Saving Scout

by Judi McLeod
Tuesday, March 8, 2005

One can only hope that the fourth grader attending a Methuen, Massachusetts' elementary school as a girl before February vacation who has returned to school as a boy, is not just passing through that classic childhood phase known as "the tomboy".

according to an associated Press story, "The parents of the 9-year-old child said the youngster was born with the body of a girl, but the brain of a boy."

The little girl, who must have made friends among fourth-graders in her class, came back from a brief break as a brand new person in the same classroom.

Her parents have asked that he now be referred to and treated as a boy by teachers and other students. School officials are officially accommodating this parental request. "The parents," reports aP, "have even changed the child's name."

The child's mother told The Eagle-Tribune that the family made the decision after consulting with medical professionals. She said the child is still biologically a girl.

The mother has requested that the family not be identified to protect the child.

School Superintendent C. Phillip Littlefield said there is nothing harmful about the child being in the school.

Not harmful to others, but what about harmful to herself?

Let's hope that the "Methuen Miss" is not merely passing through the well-known childhood phase that sometimes hits little girls at about age nine.

How many mothers plead with eight and nine year old daughters, who refuse to wear frilly dresses, choosing faded dungarees, in which to climb trees with the neighborhood boys instead?

How many Moms worry aloud with relatives when their Michelles refuse to even look at new dolls, but chase outside with the boys to out climb them up to the tallest limb on the garden apple tree?

Perhaps the most famous and indeed the most lovable classic tomboy of literature is Scout in Harper Lee's book To Kill a Mockingbird.

Scout's story was set in the small town of Maycomb, alabama during the Depression.

Her brother Jem was no match for the rebellious tomboy, and eight-year-old sister, Scout Finch.

Fiercely independent, Scout crystallized from the caterpillar stage of the conventional tomboy to the softhearted young lady with sympathy for the tragic Boo.

How many family photo albums depict grubby tomboys replaced pages later by full-skirted debutantes at their high school proms?

Let's hope that the doctors' should-be temporary prognosis doesn't lead to the more permanent one of here-to-stay debilitating gender confusion.

Mama and Papa shouldn't toss out the barrettes and braid ribbons of the "Methuen Miss". It's more than possible that someday soon, out of that tomboy, a poised and perfumed girl will be stepping out.

Don't kill off this fledgling mockingbird.

"The body of a girl but the brains of a boy?"

Where is it written that beauty and brains can't come in just one package?

Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com


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