Lily has been in her single-gender magnet public school (actually, there's also a program for boys so it's really a double-gender, single-gender approach but who would know what that means?) for slightly over a year now. It's the best decision we've ever made.
Here's a recent conversation:
Lily: I'm going to be really sad when I get out of eighth grade next year.
Me: Why?
Lily: Everybody is so nice here. Even the mean people.
At her fancy private school (the one we pulled her out of last year mid-year) the mean people were actually mean. Go figure.
In fact, there was a mean boy who was just rude to all the girls. He must have had a terrible crush on them all and didn't have a clue what to do about it, though try to explain that to any of the girls. "He's just mean and rude," they'd say.
He would stand in front of Lily's locker and intentionally block her access. When she'd ask him to move, he'd say things like, "Loser" as he slowly stepped out of the way. That's not why we pulled her out of school, left half-a-year's fully paid tuition on the table, bought property in the other school district so we could apply for admission, paid tuition for the public school in the other district and had to get her admitted to the magnet program. (And if you think any of this means we have lots of money, you're wrong.) Here's why we pulled her out of an excellent school and chose a single-gender school.
But, before she left the private school, she had a fantasy. She was going to slap Matthew on her last day at school when he blocked her from getting to her locker. All the girls were thrilled. They talked about it for weeks. "Lily's going to slap Matthew!" Vigilante justice. There were phone calls. Much scheming. "Lily's going to slap Matthew!"
At the time, my father was in the hospital looking like death and not far from it. We went to visit him. Lily told him, "I'm going to slap Matthew on my last day of school." My father, of course, was all for this.
"Do you know how to slap somebody?" he asked.
She demonstrated her technique. My father gave her some pointers, and there in his hospital bed with tubes and monitors tying him down like Gulliver in Lilliput, he showed her how she needed to bring her arm back as far as she could before letting go as hard as she can. He showed her how to hold her hand to inflict maximum pain.
Then he said, "Okay. You've slapped him. Now what are you going to do?"
Lily thought about this for a minute. "Run?"
"Yes. Run. And run fast. 'Cause if you slap somebody, you'd better be sure you're ready in case they slap you back."
Lily decided that Matthew would be too shocked to slap her back since she had tolerated his insults graciously for years. Plus, her friends were all going to be there.
I was probably not a very good mother in all this, as I didn't forbid it. Sometimes, people just need slapping. Especially uppity Southern aristocratic boys who have forgotten (or never knew) their manners. (See "Gone with the Wind.") Still, I should have said something, though I probably still wouldn't.
There was great anticipation among the girls on Lily's last day of school. Matthew was going to get slapped.
Only, since it was her last day, the cafeteria gave her a cake and everybody sang a song about how they would miss her. All the teachers made a big deal of her departure and how much she'd be missed. And even Matthew was nice.
"I was all set to slap him, but he was all nice."
Oh well. At least she's got the technique down.