Have you ever watched children trying to play nicely with each other?

It's really funny. My niece loves to have people play with her, but they have to play her way. She dictates the rules and directs the scenario. If she gets too bossy and you quit playing with her, she tries to act extra sweet to convince you to play again.

You'd think it was just a small kid thing, and that they'd learn to play well with others later in life. But no. Our girls at school are preparing for their "Spirit Week", a competition between the grades to show how much class and school spirit they all have. They are required to make a class t-shirt and banner, they must decorate their lockers, and they must write and perform a skit and songs. This means every member of each class must participate and help out. They are all on committees, and each committee handles a part of the requirements. So far, in the 9th graders' efforts, we've had some conflict on the skit committee, and the banner and locker committees are panicking. You see, several of the girls took it upon themselves to write part of the script for the skit. But another girl didn't think it was funny. She wanted to rewrite some of the parts with the help of another girl, who actually thought the skit was funny and didn't want to tell this other girl because she thought the other girl would get mad. So she told her she'd help rewrite it, but then she didn't, and now all the girls are mad at each other. And that's just the skit! The banner committee has a 10x17 foot banner to make. They have about an acre of different colors of butcher paper spread out over the floor in my classroom, and they are frantically creating and recreating their design. Gradually, as students give up and go home for the day, those who are left behind become more and more desperate, and are snappish with each other. Meanwhile, the girls responsible for the locker decorations have taken over the hallway outside my room, and are measuring, cutting, sketching, and trying not to glue themselves to the floor. The only committee not freaking out right now is the song committee, which tells me that they haven't done anything, and therefore haven't started panicking yet.

Anyway, it's amazing how these girls work. They all talk about each other behind each other's backs. When they are talking to the person they don't like, they are as sweet as pie, but as soon as she walks away...mrow ftt ftt! (cat fight) Sometimes I'm glad I don't teach boys, but at least when boys are mad, they punch each other, get it over with, and make up. The hormones in my classroom would kill a normal human being, someone who isn't usually exposed to such levels.

Spirit Week is next week. I have to survive until Friday. Pray for me...