While some of your observations are right on, I have yet to see kids of kindergarten age judge anyone else by the smell of their soap. In fact, from personal experience around here, I have never seen any group of kids LESS judgmental than kindergarten kids, which operate on a much more primitive level of socialization (I don't like Billy because he tipped over my crayon box!) I suspect a child with two heads would find himself included in the games more often than not.

That social level crap comes later. Way too soon.

Sure adults can pick out the kids from poorer families--there's a lot of "class" mixing around here--from the cut of clothes and things.

But a child with hand-me-downs will also often come to school sporting a beautiful and complex head of braided hair and beads, something that must have taken a loving mother or grandma hours to do. The love shows. These are not neglected kids.

As an aside, I have theorized that much of what has become "hip-hop" clothing styles, pants hanging loose, flapping sneakers, etc. derives from youngsters wearing hand-me-downs before they were quite grown into, and DARING anyone to believe that this was anything other than a fashion statement.