Ah, head lice. As a new school year revs up and kids are freshly home from summer camps, it’s a topic worth addressing. The stigma attached with head lice is indicative of a greater problem in society, that of comparing the so-called haves and have-nots.

What’s ironic is that head lice is absolutely in no way indicative of either cleanliness or hygiene, although I can definitely remember the kids who were sent home directly following the school nurse’s “lice check.” It must have been mortifying for them.

Although I am fairly well-educated and consider myself an open-minded person, I’ve found that I have a lot to learn about these little buggers as both a teacher and a parent—and the knee-jerk reaction that seems to go along with an infestation.

From USA Today:

Any child can get head lice. Dr. David Flinders, a family physician in Provo, Utah, stressed that getting head lice shouldn’t reflect badly on children who have them or on the children’s families.

“People often think it’s associated with poor hygiene or low socioeconomic status,” Flinders said. But, he said, “an affluent person is just as likely to get head lice as someone from a lower socioeconomic status.”

And often the white collar families are the ones that suffer most as they have to overcome their own aversions and humiliation (misguided as it may be) to a situation that they have preconceived notions about.

Going to the store and buying Nix and huge quantities of Lysol? …

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