After a long day of cheers and hooplah, your team captain announces it’s time for lunch. Your friends are on the other team.

You go to where your friends are sitting on the other side and say, “Can I sit with you guys?” Someone from the other team yells for you to get back to your own side and maybe sprays you with a Super-soaker. You end up running away to the safety of your own team.

Why did they chase you away? Because you’re another color. That sounds a little bit like racism. I think a lot of people would agree with me if I said that racist hate-wars are far from necessary.

Silly, you say — it’s all just fun, and you don’t actually hate the other team; it’s just pretend for the day. The next day it’s like it didn’t happen.

But taking a day off from classes to force large numbers of people to hate another group of people–even for pretend–because they’re another “color” shouldn’t be promoted at a school that is repudiated for its focus on morality, justice and commitment to education.

After all, the anti-Semitism in 1939 Germany caught hold because the nation’s leaders told the population to hate Jews.

Also, we have to remember we’re a school, not a summer camp. It’s definitely cool and healthy to have a day dedicated to fun every once in a while — after all, what are Purim and Yom Ha’atzmaut? But to stop everything for an entire day to fool around at the park– especially as AP exams and the SATs are rapidly approaching—is not a responsible thing to do.

You can say that Color War is a great way to get the older grades to bond with the underclassmen. But if you look at what actually happens, people hang around with people they are familiar with and sign up for activities that their friends are joining or that they’re especially good at. Plus, why have people bond out of sheer desperation to beat the other team when there are so many more wholesome ways to do it?

A day that was much better spent that accomplished the same things was Community Service Day. Students got together to help their community and make real differences, while having fun working together and meshing with other grades. We missed a day of sorely needed school for it, but everyone went home feeling like they helped someone who needed help and performed real good deeds.

Then look at Color War where the half of the school that was on the losing team goes home feeling really lousy and everyone goes home with sore limbs and no voices, due to intense cheer sessions.

So in short, Color War is a little too close to racist hate-wars to have at a school like Shalhevet, not worth sacrificing a much-needed day of school for, and would be a lot more productive in regards to grade-to-grade bonding if it were done with a concrete purpose.

After all, who wants to be chased away by an army of teenagers in bright colors equipped with silly string and super-soakers?