School Spirit in Schools

At my high school, a majority of the students and a few teachers lack school spirit. During my first year of high school, I noticed that many of the students did not participate during our spirit week or school events. I even recall an instance when a teacher singled out a student and told him to grow up because he dressed up for Halloween at school. After that experience, I decided to become more involved in clubs, such as Anti-bullying, in order to spread positivity throughout the campus and increase participation in school events among the students.

Students feel as though schools try to contain them and that they are not able to be themselves. They are forced to sit in a chair for a certain amount of time and to quietly complete assignments. The thought of this recurring activity results in students caring less about school, which eventually makes their grades decrease. By shortening the school days, students wouldn’t be as distressed about going to school and their grades would be higher. Fewer school hours per day would permit students to have enough time to study, complete school assignments, participate in after-school activities and be able to get to bed by a decent hour.” Rachel D, Teen Talk student writer.

A prominent problem that I could see within our school is how undermined a student's opinion can be. My fellow classmates might agree that there are teachers who wouldn’t acknowledge a student's opinion. Now this is a trait that is contained by a select few. This inherent problem rears its ugly head when substitutes are put in place of a teacher, and these so- called substitutes will have a one track mind and discard any outside ideas. This glitch was apparent in a substitute of mine, all she seemed to do was tell you that you were wrong. The only moment that you became “right” is when you took a swing at trying to talk about something she enjoyed. For her though, her niche was cars and she happened to be quite fond. She wouldn’t forget that either and she would only then begin to listen to your side. Another problem that could be spotted by an average student walking through the halls would be the high use of drugs and alcohol. Drugs affect a large populous of students throughout the entire country and it's nothing new. Alcohol and drugs are complications that may be taking place outside of school, but it has begun seeping its way through the doors. Alcohol is the leading point of issue within schools around the

Cheerleading is a time to represent your school spirit and pride. Ever since grade school I was a cheerleader. I continued to cheer in middle school and up to junior year in High School, for a total of six years. I started off with pop warner cheer then junior varsity cheer and ended with varsity cheer in high school. When you cheer you get to get the crowd involved in the game, you make new friends and you also get to compete in competitive cheer at competitions. Cheerleading was a great part of my life and it is an experience I will always treasure. It has taught me that practice builds stamina, competition proves your teams point and it builds the understanding of why teamwork is important.

Describe an obstacle to positive change that you see in your school (or a school with which you are familiar).

Baylor University has been a dream of mine since I saw Brittney Griner and the Baylor Lady Bears go undefeated in 2012. The amount of school spirit and tradition Baylor offers in all of their sports really increased my interest. As a senior in high school school spirit is a tremendous deal and one of the qualities you look for in a school. Overall the number of traditions here will allow me to contribute in numerous ways to the community.

Obviously, school is boring when it’s too peaceful and quiet. Students need assemblies and teams to rally around to boost moral! Just last week the school cancelled our pep assembly. We had such an important game and I just wasn't feeling ‘peppy.’ Reports from other students at school were not feeling the joy of the first football game either. The assembly would have given us a reason to have school spirit and isn't that something that the school always wants us to

Some see school as a fun environment to come to everyday, while others dread to wake up and count down the amount of days until they are out of Hell. The author of “3 Destructive Things School Taught You Without You Even Knowing”, would have picked the second option, based on his article about schools. While there are some good points made throughout the article, to support his feelings, I have to say that he did not convince me.

Another part of the problem with high schools is the amount of homework is given to students. Let’s say that a student has five classes a day and receives five hours of homework each night. That leaves the student little to no time to spend time with family and friends, go to work, play a sport, and even

Students that get into fights are not thinking about the consequences. If you get kicked out of school that can ruin your future. Other students do not do their work in school. Not doing your best in school can make it so that you get denied by the college you always

“If our school had more spirit people would be more positive and happy,” says student, Justin Bowling.

Some schools seriously lack school spirit. It doesn’t just show in support, but it drastically affects academics and attendance. Schools with lower school spirit have been found to do worse in school and have lower attendance rates. Low school spirit also affects extracurricular clubs and sports teams. School spirit needs to be a priority in schools because the effects are positive.

School spirit tends to be a more complex and involved concept than wearing colors on Fridays and attending occasional football games in the fall - it’s ingrained into new students the moment they step foot onto campus, whether they like it or not. If or how it manifests is up to the individual, but school pride could be compared to a disease, one that bleeds into the neurological system and remains hidden until a student who typically cares little for their school is defending it like nobody’s business against someone who has challenged it. On that account, it’s nearly incontrovertible that Cooper City High School has the most contagious case of school spirit in Broward County. It’s our core and our very essence; if one word was to be

The school bell rang as students were eager to leave either to hang out with friends or just go home after a long day at school. Students from every direction rushing to their cars or trying to catch the bus was usually an everyday seeing. Some staying for after school tutorials or even after school clubs. Others not realizing that reality is about to hit us as our final school year is coming.

There is also a need to change in the internal culture of the school. From informal interview it would appear some teachers due to frustration and their voices not being heard have given up on themselves and students alike.