Title: “Girls’ things and boys’ things?”
Author: Silvina Carrasco
9 Characters:
- Teacher: She is an elderly lady, a second grade teacher in an elementary school.
- Mili: She is a seven-year-old girl, a second grader. She likes to play soccer and plays very well, but her classmates don’t let her participate in the games because she is a girl.
- Diego: He is a seven-year-old boy, a second grader. He has been taught that there are activities that are only for boys and activities that are only for girls.
- Sebastian: Second grader.
- Fabian: Second grader.
- Luis: Second grader. He prefers to write poetry, but he plays soccer so his friends don’t make fun of him.
- Morena: Second grader.
- Ara: Second grader. Like Mili, she prefers activities that are said to be for boys.
- Diego’s mother
ACT I
Characters involved in this act: Diego, Sebastian, Fabian, Luis, Mili and the Teacher.
Scene: The playground of an elementary school during recess.
Children running and playing. Diego, Sebastian, Fabian and Luis are playing soccer.
(Diego passes the ball to Luis. The ball passes very close to him and at a slow speed but Luis can’t stop it and the ball keeps going).
-Sebastian: Oh, Luis, you suck!
-Fabian: I was going too slow! Go to the goal, Luis!
(Mili approaches)
-Mili: Can I play?
(Diego and Fabian laugh).
-Diego: No Mili, how are you going to play soccer! Go play with the girls who are making decorations for the classroom.
-Mili: But I don’t want to make decorations, I want to play soccer with you, what’s wrong with that?
-Diego: You’re a girl and girls don’t play soccer. Go away Mili, don’t be a pain in the ass!
(Mili leaves very angry. She arrives at the classroom door, where she finds the teacher).
-Mili: The boys won’t let me play with them, they never let me play! They say soccer is a boys’ game! And that’s not true. I play in my neighborhood team and I play really well.
-Teacher: Don’t worry, Mili, of course it’s not true. There are no boys’ games and girls’ games.
-Mili: That’s unfair! Luis didn’t even feel like playing. He was just standing there doing nothing. They would have let me play instead.
(The bell rings to go back to class).
ACT II
Characters that intervene in this act: Teacher, Mili, Morena, Ara, Diego, Sebastian, Fabian, Luis.
Scenario: Classroom.
(The children are sitting on their benches and the teacher is standing in front of the class).
Teacher: Before we start the math class we are going to talk about something that happened at recess. (She pauses and looks at them) Do you think there are activities that are only for boys or only for girls?
Diego: Of course there are! Girls can’t play soccer.
Mili: Why can’t they? Yes they can! I play almost every day.
Diego: But you’re a girl! Why don’t you play girl games?
Teacher: Let’s see, boys. Let’s talk quietly, without fighting. I’m going to give you an example, do you think it’s okay for me to be a teacher?
(All the children say yes.)
Teacher: I tell you that many, many years ago, when I started studying to become a teacher, it was a little strange for women to study. Afterwards, people started to realize that in order to study you needed to be able to reason or think and dedicate hours to reading, and that could be done by women as well as men.
Ara: And were you ashamed of being made fun of at the beginning?
Teacher: (With a tone of complicity) Not really, not much. I was lucky that my family taught me from a very young age that I could do whatever I wanted to do.
Ara: When I visit my grandmother, I like to climb trees with my cousins, but they make fun of me because they say I look like a boy and that makes me feel ashamed.
Teacher: Shall I tell you something? When I was about 15 years old, I used to help my dad in his mechanic shop. He loved to teach me how car engines work and I loved to learn. Sometimes I was a little embarrassed when the neighborhood kids told me something, but then I thought about it and I preferred to do what I enjoyed, which was helping my dad.
-Morena: (Amazed) But that’s a man’s job!
Teacher: (Smiling) It’s the same as I was telling you before: to fix cars you need to know how they work, be very careful and be able to use your hands and your eyesight. That can be done by both women and men.
Mili: And to play soccer you need to like to play and have two legs to run and two feet to hit the ball, and that’s what girls and boys have.
Fabian: Luis has two feet but he doesn’t catch one.
(Some children laugh.)
Luis: (With a little embarrassment and hesitating) It’s that… It’s that I… Heeee… I don’t like… playing soccer. (He looks around and sees that nobody is making fun of him, he keeps talking) I would like to stay writing… poetry… at recess, but I thought they were going to laugh at me.
Sebastian: Almost all the books my mom has of stories and poems were written by men.
Teacher: So, what did we learn from this talk?
Fabian: That there are no boys’ games and girls’ games.
Morena: That we can play whatever we want.
Ara: And that we don’t have to stop doing what we feel like doing because we are boys or girls.
Teacher: Very good! Then I propose that from today on, in this grade, we will no longer get upset about the things we like to do. Everyone can play whatever he/she likes. Do you agree?
Children: (very enthusiastic) Yes! Yes! I understand! It’s a deal! It’s a pact!
ACT III
Characters in this act: Diego and Diego’s mother.
Scene: Entrance door of the school.
The dismissal bell rings. Diego’s mother waits at the door. The children begin to leave.
(Diego approaches his mother and gives her a kiss).
Diego’s mom: Hi my love, how did it go today?
Diego: Good, have you cooked yet?
Diego’s mom: Not yet. I was just going to buy something ready.
Diego: How about cooking something together?
Diego’s mom: (Surprised) Do you want to help me cook?!
Diego: It’s just that every time I see you cooking I find it really funny, but I thought that was a woman’s thing. But today I learned that I can do whatever I think is fun and that there are no girl things and boy things. Will you let me help you?
Diego’s mom: Of course!
THE END