![Junior Grant Levins sprints down the track. "I'm here to try out because I love the sport of track and field and I'm working on my 800 [meter] time. Just trying to get better," Levins said.](https://www.wjpitch.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/g82ehdhTRiNswrE8gfn0tL9VRz7fuAnaiIKPCaOI-1200x900.jpg)
Spirit week: a week where students are supposed to be showing off their, well, spirit. It’s a time where the school should stand in solidarity and get excited for the upcoming pep rally or school dance. However, as of recently I’ve seen a lack in participation in Spirit Week. When I was a freshman, I remember being so impressed with how many students participated in spirit week. Especially on class color day, I remember the stands being filled with the clear divisions of green, black, white and red (our color at the time). So what’s changed?
One of the main things that has driven away participation during Spirit Week is lack of communication between Leadership and the students. Most of the time, students don’t even know it’s Spirit Week when it’s Spirit Week. The announcement on social media is made generally last minute, and there’s no announcement the Friday before to remind students. More people would definitely participate if there was more hype for the week beforehand.
I think the lack of spirit comes from the fact that these the spirits are becoming more and more complicated. People used to participate in Spirit Week not only because it was fun, but also because it was easy. Now each spirit day is assigned with a theme more and more ridiculous than the next. The classics like Pajama Day and Wacky Wednesday have been replaced with Cats versus Cows day and Career Day. What were those supposed to be? The students need to have the same understanding as Leadership or else we’re just not going to participate.
It’s understandable that the people in Leadership want to be creative, but the goal at the end of the day is to get people excited for upcoming events. We’re not going to participate in Spirit Week if we have to go out of our way to do something really crazy and outrageous like Toga Day or Spa Day. I like days like Meme Monday which was creative, but was also somewhat easy enough to participate in. For some of these days, however, it really seems like Leadership is running out of ideas.
There’s no doubt this school has a lot of pride and is willing to show it off. We just need to improve the state of Spirit Week or else we’re no longer going to have the spark we used to. Let’s make an effort to improve Spirit Week.
