In the week vacation, I have read a lot of research that shows that what one thinks is common sense does not always work out. For example when you take troubled youths to a prison, to try to scare them (program is called Scared Straight) and have prisoners tell horrible stories about prison. What they have found out is that more people who go through this program commit crimes that at risk youths who do not use this program.
This type of research that goes against the grain made me think about spirit week. What is the purpose of spirit week? I would think to bring the community together, to feel a sense of belonging, and to have a greater appreciation for the school.
Now the question is does Spirit Week accomplish these goals? I would appreciate your response to this question. Do you feel better about our school after spirit week? Does it reach the goals I stated above? Are there goals besides the ones above that the week should be trying to accomplish.
The purpose of spirit week is to build school spirit in theory. I don't think it works though because the students who go to the games are athletes who already have a lot of spirit. I also think students need to spend the time studying and focusing on their well being instead of going to other events. The spirit games are to try and spread school spirit which in life things start from the top down, but I don't think that works for most students at Dulaney.
ReplyDeleteLily
I think that spirit week is meant to build school loyalty and more importantly class loyalty. When the color of a shirt is actually meaningful to a class, then spirit days are more meaningful, because that sophmore blue isn't just a color but a representation of students who are going through the same struggle as you. However, at Dulaney I don't think spirit week accomplishes much because people don't take it seriously and don't associate with anything more than following the dress code of the day.
ReplyDeleteJohn A
As much as I hate to be cynical, I question the effectiveness of spirit week. Sure, attendance to games has increased, but is it really worth it to have students reluctantly going out to games? Should the stands really be filled with students who would rather be someplace else? I like the intention of spirit week - I really do. It's just that school spirit can't be forced or faked. It's especially tough around AP season when many students have to budget their time carefully to study for their upcoming exams. If student athletes really are students before they're athletes, then it should be okay for students to forgo the games to study.
ReplyDeletethanks for the comments, I wonder does spirit week increase school spirit. I also think that when people are pressured to attend some events it takes those people who would like to go and makes them feel they have to go. In psychology we call that the overjustification effect. I also wonder does it make people who do not like spirit week even more negative about the school.
ReplyDeleteI think school spirit is important. The sense of community, team work and synergy can not be discounted. You see it among students who work together, help each other and motivate each other. The important question is how do we get this to happen without making it like Nick said be fake
I really enjoy spirit games but placing spirit week right before ap exams seems to be a poor choice to me. I think spirit games are great and they've brought a lot of pride in the school, but to me school pride isn't just about enthusiasm for the sports teams. The same pride we bring to the bleachers should also happen in the classroom and hallways.
ReplyDeleteNot taking into account that student athletes also need to study for ap exams might have sent the wrong message from the athletic department to the rest of the school. That athletics are more important. I can definitely see why this might upset you. School pride is for every aspect of dulaney, not just our sports teams.
I see spirit week as a tool used by the omnipresent ignorant American to enforce an anti-intellectual culture on the high school atmosphere. Shrouded in the lies of improving school spirit and an increased sense of community, spirit week is more like a fascist rally to keep the population distracted from the real problems of the world much like the circuses of Rome. They laud support, applause, and attention over the athletics program with lavish stadiums and orchestrated rallies whilst huge sections of the Dulaney community are ignored. Of the academic teams, only one has ever been able to push itself into the pep rally once and that was because the robotics club built a t-shirt cannon.
ReplyDeleteThe priorities of this school are entirely backwards in part I think to spirit week. It glorifies physical ability leaving intelligence flapping in the wind. A wonderful example is that the robotics club was told it would be able to host its annual fall event in the gym. This permission was later rescinded on the count that the floor had to be resurfaced. The floor was not in fact resurfaces, the gym was instead used for a volley ball practice that hereto had been unmentioned. "Dulaney" has not once appeared on the robotics team t-shirts. Coincidence? I don't think so.