The Difference Between Boys and Girls

Mr. Jewett has started a new project for the kids in Computer Productions today. It is a film project.

Kids are to get together in groups of 3-4 and come up with a short film idea on the theme "Christmas Spirit at CLP." The story is to be between one and two minutes long and the kids will shoot it with videocameras, then edit the film on the computer, adding sounds, graphics, texts, etc.

The group that does the best job on their project will have their film shown on the Christmas edition of CLPN, the weekly news video that some of the advanced kids put together.

The groups are mostly all-boy and all-girl. Groups have to have their idea cleared with me or Mr. Jewett before they start their filming.

The girls' ideas start pouring in:

"We want to do a story about a little girl whose puppy is sick and she is at the vets and some grouchy people come by and they help her and they get the Christmas spirit and everyone is happy."

"We find this old map in a book at the library and it looks like a treasure map, so we follow it and it leads us to this little room down in the basement at CLP and when we get there and open the door, we find that it is Santa's workshop, with elves and Christmas trees and stuff and we find out that Santa's workshop is in a secret room underneath CLP."

The boys' ideas start pouring in:

"Santa is attacked by aliens, who shoot him with a laser and his head explodes. The aliens take over Santa's sleigh and deliver slimeball and alien glob presents to everyone."

"Santa is a gangster who breaks in and steals toys from kids. The cops chase him down and take him to jail."

"Santa is a ninja who gets jumped by a whole army of black ninjas wanting to steal all of his toys. There is a big battle, and Santa kills all of the other ninjas."

It is amazing how junior high boys feed on violence. When they are creating their websites or flash movies, we have to continually tell them "No bloodshed! No guns! No death!"

I don't remember being like that when I was a kid. Maybe I was...