"Space" - Growing Up

In this section of Space a memoir, Jesse Lee continues through the fourth grade, still not wanting to go to do school or do homework, just content spending her time playing outside with her best friend Marly. However, she reveals what we would considered very old-fashioned ethical beliefs, that would even be considered racist and sexist. Lee explains how in her fourth grade class the children are split into different "supposedly like-minded groups," which were all supposed to be equal but as she explains it is clear that her group is the "advanced" section of students. She makes a harsh observation of the way the groups are formed saying "You don't have to be Advanced to figure out how the system really wored. Almost all the black and poor kids were in Basic and seeed to spend most of their school days helping the janitor." This seems like a harsh analysis of the school system however, coming from a fourth grader is simley an innocent observation. Even at a young age she recognized that other poople were getting diferent treatment because of their skin color or social standing. She doesn't seem to understand really why this is but also doesn't seem to be terribly bother by it, that was just how things were in her mind. Today, though, this is despicable, and rightly so, why should kids be grouped by the ammount of money their families have or by what ethnicity they are. The SHOULD be grouped however into "like-minded groups" because people who are at roughly the same level will be easier to teach as a group than kids who are at all different stages of learning. However this does not make one group "better" than another.
Lee also makes a comment about the occupations of women vs. the occupations of men. Refering first to her and her classmates specifically and then women in general she says "We were too busy talking, too busy with our bodies to keep up with science. No wonder women weren't the first ones on their way to th moon". I would concider this a very sexist comment except for the fact that it is coming from a fourth grade girl, reflecting on the connection between how her and her classmates on and the fact that there aren't many female astraunats. I don't think that she is saying that women couldnt have been the first people on the moon, after all she herlself want to be an astraunaut when she grows up. I think that she is almost expressing dissapointment at women for getting distracted and not reacing their full potential. In her memoir this is really the first section where we see Jesse as more than an innocent and ignorent child. It is clear that even though all she really wants to do is have fun, and has no interest in school, she is by no means uninteligent and has an observation based understaning of the world.