I teach middle school.
Consequently, I often must chastise students for excessive horseplay or for foul language, etc., in the halls. Problem is, there are a lot of black students at my school; and most of them -- girls and boys in equal parts -- wear their hair in corn rows. The short variety, with no extensions. About once a week I make the mistake of telling one student to "get away from him" when the person in question is actually a girl. And I mistake the boys for girls nearly as often, unless they dress very distinctively. We have unisex school uniforms, you see, and at the age of 11, 12, or 13, a great many boys and girls all look exactly like one another.... Unless I know them personally, I very often am a foot-in-mouth victim. And oh -- do those kids get mad!

Another problem I've had with this sort of thing is with regard to a female student, 14, who had already given birth to a baby during the year prior. She showed no ill effects from it all, and in fact her physical appearance was -- to put it mildly -- extremely enticing, advanced for her age.

One day, as the final bell rang and the students quickly left our area, I stood talking with a colleague about this particular girl. Unbeknownst to me, she was still in the room, finishing an assignment, as I stood just outside the door talking. I carelessly said to my colleague, "Hey, did you see how tight So-and-So's jeans were today? ....If that doesn't scream 'please give me another baby right now', I don't know what does!"

And, of course, about a minute later she comes sidling out, not looking at either one of us, muttering good bye. I was so startled to see her suddenly appear there that I swear I jumped a foot into the air. All I could say was, "Have a nice afternoon," while my colleague proceeded to nearly die from hysterical silent laughter.

I felt so horribly about it, and the girl didn't come back to school for over a week.

But, when she did, she still wore those super-tight jeans all the time.
(tookishlad, Wed 21 Apr 2004, 5:17, Reply)