Friday, June 16, 2006

World Cup Madness

The World Cup games are a big deal here in middle school. While adult Americans do not seem to care very much about soccer (unlike those in the rest of the world) kid Americans are big soccer fans. After all, millions of them are dedicated soccer players themselves, so this is a big event. We have a deal in my classroom. You can turn on the game during passing times to check the scores and watch a few minutes, but when the bell rings that TV needs to be off. Mostly this works very well and the big fans are very grateful for the chance. Earlier this week, however, we had a problem.

Germany was playing against some other team (hey I never said that I was a fan) and the score was zero to zero. They had sixty seconds of overtime. Germany moved the ball down the field. Germany made a beautiful pass towards the goal AND... Zap one of the girls turned off the TV. Her timing could not have been more perfect. The fans went absolutely mad. The poor girl had no idea what she'd done because she was just trying to follow the rule and turn it off before the bell. Amid cries of anguish, the TV was immediately switched back on and we were saved by the miracle of replay. Wheew! Otherwise, I'm afraid they might have become hooligans and tried to burn some cars.

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