Passover's Wicked Child

[stars in the sky]

At the Passover Seder (festive/religious meal), we Jews follow a certain order of ceremonies set by however many years of tradition. Obviously, some folks are much more strict about it than others, but some aspects of the seder always carry through. One of these is discussion about the four metaphorical/theoretical types of children, each of whom asks a different type of question about the seder and the holiday and receives a different type of response. The wording stays pretty much the same wherever you look. The children are:

1) The wise child, who asks about the laws and customs of the holiday. The response is to explain them in detail.
3) The simple child, who asks what all this is. The response is to explain that God freed the Jews from slavery in Egypt.
4) The child who cannot ask, to whom we explain anything and everything.

#2 is the wicked child. That alone would be enough to make me want to post here, of course, but it gets more interesting. The wicked child asks, "What does all this mean to you?", and the response is to assume that this child doesn't consider him/herself as one of the Jewish people, and therefore would not have been led out of Egypt.

Now, having become a Wicked fan since last Passover, this got me thinking. The wicked child is just that-- a child. What if s/he is just trying to know how other people feel about the seder and all? What if it's just been phrased wrong? Even if that's what the kid meant, why "wicked," you know? Even one of my non-fan cousins thought it might not be the best word choice.

These were just some of my thoughts; I'd love to see what anyone else (Jewish or otherwise) thinks on the subject

[imperfectly_green]

In my Haggadah, the so-called "wicked child" is referred to as the "rebellious child" instead. I prefer that, because the child might just be skeptical about the basis of the Seder. I'm in a questioning phase right now, and I don't always believe what Judaism says is standard, so the wicked/rebellious child might be trying to determine what he/she believes by looking at it through the eyes of others. This is considered wicked/rebellious because the child themselves chooses to question the actual religion, their own beliefs regarding it, and what it means to the parent, instead of merely Seder technicalities.
The term "wicked" is probably used to encourage children to identify with the religious customs and the Seder, instead of pushing themselves away from the rest of the people.
This is just a thought, though. I don't always see eye to eye with my Jewish friends on religious questions such as these, so I'm open to any other opinions.
On a more whimsical note, as a family custom we draw slips of paper from a box to determine whom will read which child. When the "wicked" one was drawn, my sister and I glanced at each other, almost as if one of us wanted to be the wicked child (we're both "wicked through and through," after all).

[no_good_deed]

that's the same in my haggadah...not the wicked child...but the rebellious child...and i like that better than wicked because it's not that the child is wicked per say...but perhaps the question was misinterpreted...or something along those lines...