101609 #treefrog Most of my 11th graders are "practicing" their scene adaptation of Ball Don't Lie. But what they're actually doing is playing. They're acting silly and having fun in a dorky, childlike way. This, I surmise, is why a lot of them want to keep coming back to school. The absurdity of the environment (yes, it is absurd, no matter how pedagogically serious we may be), through its arbitrary restrictions, enables freedom of creative play. School puts up enough of a guard to allow them to let some of theirs down.