Currently, students in the middle school celebrate multiple spirit days divided up throughout the year. In past years, these spirit days took place all in one week, and it was called “spirit week.” Similar to the format in high school, we believe that the administration should adjust the spirit days to be a week of spirit and change the format so that students are competing in grade level teams rather than in mixed color groups.
Currently, the middle school is split up into two different teams for spirit days. Each team contains different color groups. The first team is purple, blue, green, and black color groups and the other is orange, red, and yellow color groups. Throughout the year, the students experience multiple spirit days. Whichever team has the most students dressed up in the appropriate attire for that specific spirit wins. This gives students the chance to compete against each other and show school spirit to represent their color group.
Although from a teacher’s view having color groups compete against each other is more effective, students believe that having grade levels compete against each other urges students to participate in dressing up which is the overall goal of our spirit days.
Eighth grade student Yasmina Kassir talk about how competing in grade levels encourage others to dress up. “I would rather have grade levels compete against each other for spirit days because when the grade gets together as a whole it’s more exciting for us to dress up. It would also brings the grade together as a whole because when we compete against each other in color groups we often don’t know each other as we aren’t in the same grade which decreases the excitement for the spirit day.
Mr. Payson Bullard, the director of student life and one of the student council advisors, explained how in previous years when students continuously had spirit days in the span of one week it became a problem for the students academically. Students throughout the middle school, particularly in grades five and six were becoming less focused and more distracted in class. Teachers also found a big gap in their ability to teach that week. Having the spirit days spread out throughout the year can also be viewed as beneficial for the students because it gives them various events to look forward to instead of having them all in one week.
From a student’s perspective, a spirit week is more fun and overall a better experience for all middle school students. If we were to change our arrangement of spirit days similar to the way it is in the high school where it is each grade level competing against each other, then students would have a more enjoyable experience. “I think that a spirit week really unites a grade because spirit days are so spread apart that a lot of people don’t dress up,” eighth grade student Danielle Hajjar said. “A spirit week creates more of a competitive and fun environment which encourages more students to take part.”
Whist teachers and other administrators are in favor of spread out spirit days, students prefer the idea of a spirit week. A student’s opinion is majorly important because these spirit days are surrounded by the students. The goal of these events is to get each student to dress up to show spirit. This goal could be reached if students were to start competing in grade level teams therefore, more students would dress up which highlights the meaning of the spirit day.
Although the main problem of this issue is the difficulties with teachers being able to work with students, this can be resolved. The last time spirit week was held all the students in the middle school have gone onto be high schoolers. This means that if we were to try spirit week in the next couple of years,ww then teachers would be working with a different group of students. Therefore, teachers may find that this group of students do not struggle with learning during that specific week and then the administration will be able to make spirit week return. If these ideas are put into action then students may have a more enjoyable experience when it comes to spirit week.
