Lack of spirit
Minimal participation from students
Senior class during class cheer-offs. Photo courtesy of Mark Lu.
When you read the headline, you probably thought the same thing. Regardless of your opinion on our school spirit, it is quite evident the student body lacks a quality amount of school spirit.
I’m not talking about the kind of spirit that measures how loud each class can cheer at the rallies, or the kind of spirit shown in cheer-offs – yes, we excel at that – I’m talking about the kind of spirit we lack in terms of student participation during spirit weeks and school events.
Sure, some students are spirited, but it seems the seniors are the only ones who truly show their enthusiasm at school events. What about the other classes?
One may argue that since senior year is the last year in high school, it makes sense for them to make the most of their final year by giving it their all and actively participating in school events. However, when it comes to the other classes, most fail to display an equivalent level of spirit and participation. Maybe because they think, “well, the seniors always win anyway, so whatever.”
This is the wrong mindset.
In order for a school to be spirited and united, all students should show the same amount of spirit by actively participating in school events. Even something as simple as wearing the color of your class during Battle of the Classes is a great way to participate and show your spirit.
But for the past two years I have been at Homestead, a vast majority of the people just show up in their everyday attire during spirit weeks. You may not realize it, but it’s the little things such as dressing up that can really enhance an experience and make everything feel much more vivid.
For example, when I went to the IDC exchange last year as a sophomore, I was able to experience another school’s spirit when I stood amongst the students in the stands during Lynbrook’s Blacklight Rally.
Even though it was just a simple rally, every student, regardless of grade level, showed an enormous amount of spirit. Everyone was decked out in their white shirts, shorts, socks, paint on their faces, glow sticks, pom-poms, you name it. I was amazed with the amount of spirit shown. Everyone looked like they were having the time of their life and they truly seemed united as a school. After my experience as a Viking, returning to Homestead felt dull.
What really holds us back in terms of spirit is participation. Most importantly, you, as part of the student body, should want to have fun. Though this concept seems rather simple, there is much more to it than just enjoying yourself. If you want to have fun, then you must be willing to contribute to events.
For all of you out there who complain and say that our events are lame or boring, have you ever thought why? Because we lack participation. You need to realize that for any task you will encounter in the future, the best results don’t occur unless you put all your effort into it. The same goes for school-wide events. Show the student body that you care by participating. Get your friends to dress up and match outfits with you. Take a break from homework and chat up your friends about what you plan to do.
Perhaps leadership can discuss about taking different approaches to planning the rallies by adding more variety. Instead of sticking to the banal Aloha theme every year, there are many other creative themes leadership can use that could excite students and brighten up their spirit.
With all the events we have ahead of us, there will be more room for you to help improve the school’s overall spirit. Dress up, participate in the rallies, volunteer to be a part of the games or dances and what not. This is your chance to shine and to show others that we are as spirited as other schools.
MK • Jan 12, 2016 at 6:28 pm
Hella right, get that spirit goin!
A Non-Participant • Jan 11, 2016 at 9:51 pm
Participation doesn’t hold us back so much as apathy. We don’t care, nor do we see any reason to. We have no motivation to add more spirit to our school because we never seem to have had it; we don’t miss what we’ve never had.
The article says that “students should show the same amount of spirit” in order for the school to be “spirited and united.” Why should we care if the school isn’t spirited or united? We seem to be doing fine as we are, after all. Where we’re all taught to be our unique individuals and do what we will without minding what others would say about us, this article sure pumps out another message.
First, comparing us to Lynbrook seems unnecessary, and there were a number of absolutes in that anecdote. “Every student… everyone….” Now nitpicking is easy in an article, but I refuse to believe that their environment could be so dramatically different that the author could mistake the whole school to be present at the rally.
Besides, who cares how spirited Lynbrook is? Or perhaps the better question is: why should we care how spirited they are? They’re content with themselves, and we’re clearly comfortable enough with our current situation with school spirit to not change anything.
Secondly, The article states that if we consider the events “lame or boring,” it’s probably because we lack participation. This is a perpetual loop in logic that isn’t addressed by the article:
Students don’t care because they think school events are boring because there’s no participation because students don’t care.
Yet, if the events were more interesting and exciting, if they piqued our interest to begin with, we would have much more reason to participate. Why should we change ourselves to fit this standard that only parts of the student body care about? And while true that only good results can possibly come from putting effort into the equation, what if you don’t care for the result, like so many have shown?
Finally, I wonder if there is some kind of goal for the article. While it is a personal statement, it also seems to be a sort of advertisement for school spirit. But is that spirit for ourselves? To improve our high school environment, to demonstrate our unity for ourselves?
It would appear not, to the author, when it’s written that “This is your chance to shine and to show others that we are as spirited as other schools.” Apparently we, as a collective student body, diverse in all our interests and backgrounds, need to join together in something that the majority of us do not enjoy, just to “show off” to other schools we don’t go to.
What both the author and I can agree with here, to some degree, is that it would be beneficial if leadership looked into more ways to improve rallies. The discrepancy is that I believe they need to, not that they might “perhaps” do it. We’re a huge collection of people. If you say we want to have fun in our time as a high school student, alright. But we don’t know how to get there. Consumers never know what they want until you give it to them.
“Most importantly, you, as part of the student body, should want to have fun.” Sure. Then we ought to use that structure to say: “Most importantly, you, as part of leadership team we elected to make our experience better, should want to fulfill what we elected you for and make our experience better.” When a system doesn’t work for the masses, it’s up to the system to change, not the masses. School events need to change to appeal to students, students should not and will not change to appease ASB or leadership.
RC • Jan 6, 2016 at 7:52 pm
ERIN!!! U R RIGHT ON POINT……..SPIRIT IS THE DRIVING FORCE IN OUR LIVES, AS A SCHOOL IT IS THE ONE THING THAT BRINGS ALL GRADE LEVELS TOGETHER FOR ON GREAT CAUSE AND INSPIRES ALL TO STAND UP AND B COUNTED AS ONE……LA LAKERS FAN!!!!!!!!!!! YOUR SUPPORTER IN CHIEF!
Mark Lu • Jan 4, 2016 at 8:19 pm
*slow clap*
Mark Lu • Jan 4, 2016 at 8:18 pm
http://i.imgur.com/0mKXcg1.gif?noredirect