School energy needs improvement; starts with students

We have all seen the high school movies. You know, the ones where everyone dresses up for the pep rally and cheers their hearts out for sports teams and theatre productions and academic decathlon. One of the High School Musical myths busted by real high school is that high-energy school spirit. With the end of the year fast approaching, it’s time to think towards the future and how we can give our school spirit a little boost.

Occasionally, spirit days can fall into repeats of class colors, pajamas and black/white out. While the SGA clearly works hard to think of new spirit days, there’s always room for more exciting themes. It may be time to abandon the appeal of alliteration in favor of something new.

In addition to lack of variety, spirit days are few and far between. Maybe it’s time to move beyond the pep-rally-linked spirit weeks in favor of more days in celebration of more holidays. Any day can be special if we make it so. “I think to increase school spirit we should have more fun spirit days,” junior Julia Herman said.

From the cheering competitions at pep rallies to the raffles for those who participate in spirit days, SGA and the school have long used competitions as a motivator. Students want more. “Make it a competition and not just for the class,” freshman Mia Mikowski said.

While we are undoubtedly a very academically-minded school, it may be beneficial to take some time to be together without thinking about the test or in-class. Beyond the three spirit days, we could have school-wide competitions that are more than just cheering. Being more spirited doesn’t have to be the competition, the game could be something else like a trivia competition or name that tune that would consequently increase school spirit.

Speaking of pep rallies, whatever happened to music in the hallways on pep rally days? Personally, nothing gets me energized like Hannah Montana at eight in the morning. Or even furthur, play music everyday! Other schools, like Cabin John, play music instead of bells. While we don’t have bells on normal schedules, we have enough abnormal schedules that music could replace those bells.

It’s also hard to be optimistic when it feels as though the walls are crumbling around us. “They need to renovate Wootton because people aren’t going to have school spirit if they’re not proud of their school,” sophomore Aidan Wilbur said.

That being said, renovation is not in the near future and we need to work with what we have. Whether we like it or not, we all have to come here everyday. As a school, we need to come together and make this a community that does more than learn together. And for that to happen, everyone needs to pitch in. The school cannot raise participation without people being willing to participate.

If you want to go to a school like the movies, where everyone dresses up in our colors and cheers for our team, it’s up to you. School spirit starts with each and every member of the student body.

8 of 8 editorial board members agree