Shenzhen Zen

Gender bending. All the classes are feverishly preparing for the final dramatic actitivties. Each group has to present a play no more than five minutes in length for competition. I've cobbled together the world's shortest version of Cinderella. Julian has a similar production of Three Little Pigs. One major problem is that few of the children want to perform and virtually none want to perform with someone of the opposite sex. Hence my Cinderella is a fella. As is her mother and one of her sisters. And finding parts for all thirty some kids is a challenge. I solved it with the party scene in which Cinderella loses her shoe, using all the extra kids as ball goers. Though boys will only dance with boys, girls with girls.
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Yesterday one girl in my class who calls herself Linda was working on an assignment which involved writing a letter to a parent. Hers began "Dear Father, I haven't seen you in three years. I miss you very much." I asked her where her father was.
"He's dead," she replied. Later that day she came up to me and said, "I wish you were my father." I felt like crying, though I managed to say gently that her mother might have something to say about that. It got a little smile out of her.