>I took my class of 6th graders to their annual spring track and field meet today. We got on the bus and headed down the road to meet the three other schools that will feed into the same middle school next year. They had signed up for events in advance, packed their water bottles and sunscreen, and gotten themselves all excited for the day.
When we arrived and took our places in the bleachers, a few spirited boys posed for the crowd, showing off their homemade t-shirts. One said GO. The others had one letter each: F-O-X-S. As they were cheering and acting as cool as only tweens can, one (slightly brighter) student called out, “Hey, you guys spelled Foxes wrong!” Oh, no! The horror! The embarrassment! Okay, I admit it, I snickered a little. The self-proclaimed Spirit Squad solved their problem by enlisting another boy wearing a plain white undershirt and using the other teacher’s permanent marker to make an E. Then they added an exclamation point to yet another shirt, and they were ready for anything.
We were glad they fixed the spelling. They used these shirts in the class “cheer” contest and won the coveted spirit stick!
I suppose they’ll be painting their chests in team colors ten years from now. I hope their motivation for correct spelling improves by then.