Signifying the week of Homecoming at many schools both locally and nationally, Spirit Week is a time to show off school pride and enthusiasm, unifying school communities. A few weeks ago (October 16-20th), was Spirit Week, or as many saw it, a lack of Spirit Week, at DHS.
This year’s categories were Pajama Day, Twin Day, Country vs. Country Club, Adam Sandler/Groutfit, and Blue Wave Pride Day. These themes were decided by grade-specific feedback received from Google Forms sent out by the student government.
Usually, the only days that are guaranteed to have a good turnout are Pajama Day and Blue Wave Pride Day, but this year only the latter was true. Friday’s Blue Wave Pride Day had the girls’ fall sports teams as well as Theater 308 dressed up in elaborate costumes.
The Girl’s Wave Soccer team dressed as Under the Sea with characters Sebastian, Flounder, and Ursula, and the seniors as The Little Mermaid. Girl’s Wave Cross Country had a beach theme, with beachballs, seagulls, sunburnt men, and the seniors as lifeguards. Finally, Theater 308 was swept away in a tornado to the Land of Oz, with tinmen, cowardly lions, scarecrows, and of course Dorothy.
I polled how many students participated during the week and although less than 1/4th of DHS’s total student body responded, the results were very fitting.
An even amount of people participated in Pajama Day, and looking back at what I saw, not that many people actually wear pajamas and instead opt for sweatpants.
Tuesday was a bit harder to visually tally how many people dressed up unless they were walking alongside their “twin”, but the results don’t shock me.
By Wednesday my theory was starting to form. Besides a few cowboy hats and sweaters over shoulders, you couldn’t tell the country from the club, unless you were wearing full-on overalls like me.
The newest day, “Adam Sandler Day,” has seen a rise in popularity at other schools, but unfortunately not at DHS. The best “Adam Sandlers” had to be teachers Mr. Record and Mr. Scott, each with their sneakers and oversized basketball shorts.
As mentioned before, Friday was the only exception, with dressing up being a tradition at this point. Lila Debano, one of the senior soccer captains says, “Dressing up every year is one of the favorite traditions for the girls’ soccer program. This might be the only time we don’t mind embarrassing ourselves by wearing swim caps and face paint to school!”
Here’s my theory on why Spirit Week participation has been slowly declining each year: the students who do participate in Spirit Week, don’t go “all out,” so other students don’t feel the hype and in turn don’t dress up the rest of the week or even the years to follow.
Not to discredit the students who do dress up (me being one of them), but we need to do a little more to bring that spirit back to DHS, and I’m not the only one who thinks so.
Junior, Yenairis Frias, says “I think people don’t participate in Spirit Week because DHS has an almost ‘herd mentality’ where if their friends don’t do it, they don’t.”
Throughout the week, what I noticed is more teachers went all out compared to students. As fun as it might be to see your math teacher in a bathrobe or your history teacher dressed up as Adam Sandler, being dressed up with your friends and feeling a bit foolish is a little more rewarding and what Spirit Day is all about.
The change starts with you, yes you reading this. No matter what grade you’re in for the next spirit week, regardless if it’s Homecoming Week or not, you can participate and encourage others to do the same.
