So I should start by saying that I think that school spirit can enhance the high school experience. At our school we have many students and teachers who work hard during the course of the year to improve school spirit. My question however, is what is school spirit? Do things like PEP rally's and spirit week help our school spirit?
When I am thinking about school spirit, I start to think about what makes me the most proud of my school. My first thought is always the quality of the students. We have students who work extremely hard at their academics and those who achieve tremendously in school. What however, impresses me the most is those students who are so caring for each other. I am amazed at the students who are willing to help others learn, who take time out of their day to help other achieve and finally those students who just bring a smile to other people's face.
Secondly, I am extremely proud of the efforts of SGO during the can food drive. While I wish we did not offer any incentive for bringing in the most cans and students were just doing it for the right reasons. It still does not detract from the amazing effort of our school in helping people less fortunate than us. Year after year we are one of the top schools in the county in bringing food to those who need. Last year, our top class brought in more cans than some entire schools.
Our school publications also make me proud of my school. The ability to allow our students to express themselves freely with very little if any censoring is unique to most high schools. Our school newspaper often runs articles that investigate or question decisions made by both school and district leaders. This is a great forum for debate among both students and faculty members
Now does something like spirit week enhance the feeling that one has about their school. Does dressing up in similar themes enhance the feeling of community? Does all the hard work that is done by the faculty members and students pay off in a more spirited school? That is what I wonder when I see these students and teachers working beyond the call of duty to make these events the best that they can be.
When you actually research things you see that things do not always work out the way you would think they would. There was a program called 'Scared Straight" that took at risk students to a prison where they heard horror stories about these prisoners life. The theory was that you were going to be so scared to go to prison that you would not break the law. When researchers started to compare people who went to this program, to those who did not, they found that the 'Scared Straight" program increased crime. NOT THAT WE ARE DOING ANYTHING LIKE THAT IN SCHOOLS, but I often wonder do our best intentions create opposite results.
Can we dictate school spirit by mandating that our athletes have to go to games? Or can we cultivate this feeling of support? How do we get a school where the student body wants to attend games to support each other? How do we cultivate pride in our non-athletic success?
So I will end with these questions. What is school spirit to you? How can we best cultivate this among our students and faculty? Is what we are doing now improving our school spirit? Do you think your feeling about our school has improved through the four years you have been here?
I've never been spirited about our school, i'm going to be a twelve season athlete and I have gone here for four years but I never felt like my high school was a part of who I was. At the sports games when everybody is cheering, dressing up, and chanting I feel as if we are part of a community. The mandatory spirit games really helped breed this sense of community and although I don't have any data but i'll bet that there are more people coming out to non spirit games too. I noticed in last year's winter season during wrestling. Our home matches usually had parents and maybe 10 students come to cheer us on, i get it wrestling is no football or volleyball. But after our spirit match we had at least 30 students showing up to home matches, it may not seem like much but because of the spirit matches our attendance was almost tripling. Why? I feel like our new athletic director's spirit games worked. They do make us feel more spirited and more part of the community that is our school. I feel that our athletic student body is attending more games as a whole, and this will leak into the main populace of students and will bring more out to the games. I don't have a great school spirit, I admit it, but I feel like the spirit games have made me feel like we are more of a community.
ReplyDeleteAndrew it would be interesting to see the data on the impact of spirit games to school attendance. I also think it is fun for all the sports teams to play in front of a packed house at least once a season. It is interesting however that even though you might have more spirit to sports that does not carry over to other things about the school.
ReplyDeleteThroughout my time here, I've always believed I had a lot of school spirit. I used to always base this on my involvement in school activities; I played a sport, I was in clubs, I participated in spirit days, I went to sports games, things like that. Overtime, especially this year, my opinion on what makes me spirited and what school spirit really is has changed a bit. It's not all about wearing red and black on certain days or going to a football game. While I think these things can definitely help make high school more enjoyable, school spirit really is, as you said, how much pride you take in your school. I'm proud to go to Dulaney and I'm proud of the variety of clubs and organizations that reach out to so many different people. There is so much diversity at our school that sometimes I believe that is what makes it difficult for school spirit to reach everyone. I totally agree with Andy that Coach Reed's changes and the increase in the number of spirit games and increase in the attention to spirit games has caused support and spirit for athletics to grow. I'm not a fan of lacrosse, but last year I decided to go to their spirit game. Although I still may not be a fan of lacrosse, I had a good time cheering on my team and supporting my fellow athletes and schoolmates. It made me feel proud to be a Lion and I felt a sense of community in regards to athletic support. The spirit and support for athletics has really changed immensely these past two years. The downfall to this increase support in athletics is sometimes I think it makes other clubs and organizations fall in the shadows and feel less important. I know some athletes went to the musical production last spring as a team, but I still feel a division between athletic groups and non-athletic groups. Instead of just promoting school spirit through sports and spirit games, I think we need to promote other activities such as art shows, band/orchestra/chorus/dance concerts, math club competitions etc. We need to reach out and support all parts, all clubs, and all organizations in the school in order to cultivate school spirit and create a sense of community among everyone, not just athletes. While this is easier said than done, supporting all parts of the school will help school spirit grow overall.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to spirit week, I don't think it necessarily increases school spirit. I don't see how wearing my pajamas to school really would, but I think the main point of spirit week, at least for me, is to have fun. Wear something silly, wear something ridiculous or hilarious or weird, match your friends, whatever. Spirit week for me personally is simply just fun and makes the day more enjoyable. I look forward to seeing the creativity and different ideas in everybody's outfits. I believe it really highlights the diversity and unique personalities that make up our school. Spirit days and spirit week outfits bring a smile to my face and sometimes even a laugh and I really believe it does for many others. This may seem crazy to some, but I've really enjoyed and loved most of my time here at Dulaney. I love being involved, for me, it's fun and it has made these years more enjoyable. It's given me the opportunity to really see the diversity and creativity within our student body alone. That, in and of itself, is why I have school spirit and why I take so much pride in this school.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSchool spirit is school pride.
ReplyDeleteVisiting college campuses, school spirit is so evident. If you aren't at the football game you're....NO, it's college. You're at the football game and you're decked out in college swag and your face is painted and you lose your voice cheering-- You choose the school, you love it, you are proud of being part of it.
Few of us chose to come to Dulaney- we were simply zoned for it.
Students spend 6.6 hours at school everyday, 1,188 hours each year, and at the end of our high school careers we will have spent 4,572 hours at Dulaney. That doesn't include a second of after school activities, sports practices and games, plays, or morning meetings. All 4,572 hours is time spent in the classroom, changing classes, or eating lunch.
If we are going to spend so much time in one place, and spend so much time together as a group of people- we can either shuffle our feet through it or we can pick up those feet and skip. (are ya with me!?)
It's an outlook thing.
Back to the beginning of the week... hallway wars.
You can look at it two ways.
1) "A colossal waste of paper and money spent on decorating a hallway that is too big to ever look completed and the walls are an ugly color anyway and the lockers are gross- so let's just not do it. It's stupid anyway."
OR
2) Hallway Wars is a chance for your class to come together. The seniors had over 20 people helping make hallway wars happen - taping everything up, blowing up balloons and sticking them on the walls, hanging streamers across the halls. That creates the foundation for laughs and bonding as people work together to hang things up. It's a class pride thing. And the senior class is an amazing group of incredibly talented people, and our hallway reflects that.
Spirit week is chance for us to loosen up and have some fun. No one is forced to participate- you have your group of people who will participate and go all out with it, your group who decides it's cool on the 3rd day, and your group who just doesn't want anything to do with it. But huge shoutout to the people who participate because it is just so much fun. Plus, everyone CAN participate in spirit week- it's just a matter of whether or not they actually DO- but it's open and inclusive to everyone.
At Dulaney a lot of us are really busy and really involved. It's easy to get caught up in our own little bubbles. But sometimes we just have to pop those bubbles (amiright?) and see what else is around us.
Today I had field hockey practice after school. Today all of the athletes cheered for cross country at the finish line of their race. Today Badminton played Patapsco. Today Art Club started their mural project in the Classic Cafeteria. This morning Dance Team will practice their routine on the field at 7AM on the stadium field. Today Marching Band practiced for hours after school. and I'm sure there are at least 15 other things that I missed.
There is SO much going on around us. It's a struggle sometimes to stay on top of our own lives, let alone be involved and in the know about everyone else's.
That's why spirit games are so important- that's why athletes are encouraged to attend fall&spring plays, that's why spirit week is so great.
Pep rally is the only day in the whole year where the whole school comes together. Students and teachers fill the bleachers and the field. A sea of red, black, and white converges as students make their way from the school to the stadium. It's so neat to watch and even neater to be a part of.
Pep rally is the athletes getting recognized as they each take their turn running out onto the field, the dance team showcasing their hours of hard work and practice and DRockas performing their rehearsed and perfected routines. It's really special to watch so much talent. Electric energy flows through the student body- because it's exciting--- we're all together.
I think from the perspective of a student who is really engaged all of these things bring out the best in our school. However, you mentioned that Hallway wars bring the senior class together and then discussed the 20 students who did all the work. I like the hallways since the decoration reminds us of the spirit.
ReplyDeleteI became a teacher to coach, so I understand the greatness of hearing the fans cheer for you. Does this however, bring about pride in our school? Do students feel more connected to each other after the pep rally? Are we reaching the students who are not connected to the school in such a fashion.