The second week of Spoons has posed new challenges for the class of 2024. This week marked the first round of the game where if players do not capture their target’s spoon, they are eliminated from further gameplay. Let’s take a look at what happened in this week of Spoons.
The week of Jan. 14 was a short school week for unexpected reasons. Although having Monday off for Martin Luther King Day was planned, having two snow days and a two-hour delay was a surprise. That gave spoon players only a two-day window to get their targets out in school before they would have to get creative and steal them elsewhere.
Every week, the amount of time players have to get their target out shrinks. This week, players had until Jan. 20, and next week it will be cut down to an even shorter amount of time.
On Jan. 18, an event known as Spoon Purge occurred during Lunch and Learn as compensation for the unexpectedly shortened week. During Spoon Purge, any player could steal anyone’s spoon regardless of their given target, and advance to the next round. The Purge started at 10:53 a.m. and ended at 11:20 a.m. and during that time, 16 players were eliminated from the game.
Although this is a student-run game that is not associated with the school or its administration, this game affects teachers and how they run their classes. Each teacher has the right to decide if their class is a spoon-free zone or not, and many teachers have differing opinions about Spoons’ place within the school.
An example of a teacher who does not allow Spoons to be played in his class is one of the art teachers, Mr. Wagner. “It’s a fun activity, I remember doing it when I was a student. But… it definitely does impact what kids are doing when they are supposed to be doing other things. …When I am in cafe class I see people coming in from a different class pretending to get water, and then trying to go after a student that should be doing their own work during cafe class. So yeah always spoon-free for me.”
On the other side of the opinion, Mr. Hovemeyer, an English teacher with English 4 classes, does not run a spoons-free class. “I think it’s a good way for the senior class especially to grow even more of a community. I don’t think it’s, you know, dangerous, as long as there are set rules in place to keep everyone safe, I think it’s fun.” In his classroom experience, it isn’t a distraction. “I mean, people will talk about it if there is time in the beginning or end of class but it’s not really a distraction for the classroom itself.”
Finally, Mr. Framo, a Psychology teacher and one of the Advisors of the class of 2024, thinks that it’s “nice that the senior class can come together and organize something fun that they do completely independent of the school. I do know that it can be annoying to some teachers if it is disruptive of their classes, but I don’t think students take their actions too far, and I do think they are respectful of the boundaries of school.”
Congratulations to all players who made it to the end of the second round! All of our information and stories come from interviews and personal accounts, so If you have a story about Spoons you would like to share for the next article, please email [email protected]. Good luck in week three!
