Saturday, May 14, 2011

NYR 5-12-11 - dictionaries

Today Mac told me quite offhandedly that he'd looked up "sex" in the dictionary.

W.H.A.T.?

You know that moment when time stops, your throat feels like it's closed up, you can't breathe, and you hear only silence pounding in your ears?

Well that was the moment I had.

I gathered my wits and asked him what he'd learned, and he told me that "sex" means whether you're a male or female.

Of course, that's what it means.

For my child only reading the first definition in the dictionary, I am enormously and profoundly grateful.

P.S. What is the protocol for getting dictionaries banned in schools?

1 comment:

Pam said...

I LOVE that he turned to the trusty old dictionary to satisfy his curiosity!!