Outwit, Outplay, Outlast

That's the simple rule for winning the game of Survivor.

Next week, the 5th graders of Texas take their last TAKS test of the year. It's also the first time they will take this particular test. Science. And not just 5th grade science, but science they have learned all through elementary school.

To get them geared up & excited, the assistant principal came up with Survivor Science Camp. Each day, they rotate as a homeroom to a different teacher for an activity in a different science category.

And, in the morning announcements, there is an immunity challenge. A science question is read and the 1st one to turn in the correct answer wins. The rules are simple. ONE class representative and the answer & teacher's name on a piece of paper.

The first day, the kids ran through the halls as if their lives depended on it. The teachers rooted them on. Well, some of them. There were complaints but the administration backed them up. Bear's class ended up winning.

The assistant principal told them to be creative. So Bear's teacher (who won Teacher of the Year on our campus, btw) came up with a clever plan. She asked the a.p. if they could use technology. She was told the only rules are: one class rep & everything on a piece of paper.

Bear was sent to the front office with her cell phone, pencil, & piece of paper. When the class got the answer, a student called him. He wrote it down and turned it in. They won! Again.

And all hell broke loose.

He was called a dirty rotten scoundrel and the class was accused of cheating.

All day long he had to listen to this. After school, he & I were walking down the hall & I witnessed it for myself. For Earth Day, the 5th grade teachers told the kids to meet them at the theater to watch Disney's Earth. After the movie, in the restroom, he got called a cheater once again.

Ridiculous. If it wasn't such a character assassination, I wouldn't be as upset. Bear may be A LOT of things, but a cheater is so not one of them.

The teachers were cool with it (once they calmed down & thought about it) and started thinking of ways to one up his teacher. But, they weren't really solving the problem of the other students' way of thinking.

I stewed & worried all night last night. It's true that tomorrow is another day. Thank God, today, Bear was not called any names nor anyone in his class.

And another class won immunity.