Students and faculty alike show school spirit at Hayes in a multitude of different ways, including the House program and spirit weeks. The most popular ways people show their school spirit are through participation in House activities and dressing up for spirit week days. Exploring how the interest in these events could provide needed insight into what students may find fun and exciting in the future.
English teacher Tom Hering is an active participant in many house and spirit activities. He had a lot to say on the changes to school spirit during his time teaching here.
“I do think that it is harder to get students to dress up for spirit days than it used to be at the beginning of my career,” Hering said.
He mentioned that his reasoning for this is that either students are unmotivated to come up with a unique outfit idea for every spirit day, or students don’t want to stand out by participating in a spirit day.
Hering holds a position on the board that decides the spirit week days; in addition, he mentioned that he thinks his role has an impact on the spirit weeks. His focus is also to include days that will get the most students excited about spirit week but not to go too outlandish and detract from the overall number of people that want to participate and put the effort into an outfit.
School spirit isn’t exclusively expressed through spirit weeks either; a simple saying like “Go Pacers!” is plenty to show fellow students the passionate energy many students feel for Hayes.
House is another way the students can show spirit, cheering their team on at games or participating themselves.
“I think House has filled an important void for us to try and build spirit, but at the same time people can opt out of it,” Hering said.
Hering attributes students opting out to them maybe feeling like they could want the benefit of getting out of school early instead of participating in House activities or that they don’t feel included enough within their House. He also mentioned it could be that some students feel like their house doesn’t have a strong enough identity. This could be an explanation for a decline in school spirit in general, as students are less likely to participate in dress-up days.
Although many juniors and seniors choose the extra half an hour a day, the majority of students that stay are passionate about their Houses and show that by participating in many different events throughout the year.
A passionate participant in school spirit activities, English teacher Ariel Uppstrom has different thoughts on house and school spirit.
“It kind of divides us because we’re like, ‘I’m in Fairview’ and not ‘I’m a Pacer,’” Uppstrom said.
There’s no truly right answer to the importance of House within Hayes; the majority of people will have a different opinion of House and what it means to them. There are similar conflicts about spirit days within the students and faculty at Hayes as well.
“I think it’d be more fun to have quirky ones instead of 1960s or characters from a movie,” Uppstrom said. “Maybe dress like royalty or dress like a lawn ornament.”
Spirit weeks are received on an individual basis, and there will be a divide whether the ideas are good or bad, and it’s never going to be 100% positive feedback from everybody. Coming up with ideas that excite the most people while keeping their motivation to dress up in mind.
The students’ experience in school spirit is just as valuable as the teachers; without one, there can’t be the other. A student who has participated in House all four of her years in high school is Vicky Chen, who had alternative thoughts on House and spirit to that of the interviewed teachers.
“School spirit represents the unity of our student body and how they come together to boost the morale of our school,” Chen said.
Her belief that unity is the key to boosting the morale of the school as a whole reflects some previous sentiments about school spirit feeling positive and inclusive, mentioned by Hering. Chen also lamented feeling that House is harder to enjoy.
“I feel like it’s grown less exciting to me with how strict they’ve changed House,” Chen said. “No phones make the people who dislike houses only dislike it more and that means more upperclassmen opt out.”
Her experiences are definitely representative of a lot of feelings about school spirit, while others struggle to find a use for the period. She also shared that if she could opt out now, she definitely would, as it was up to luck which room she was placed in and she’s unable to change it. Showing that as she progressed through her years here it became less interesting to her.
School spirit seems to have shifted from how it used to be expressed according to some faculty, and Chen believes House has become more boring as well.
Still, Hering said he believes in the power of school spirit and its ability to connect people into a type of adopted family. “It’s fun to be a part of something bigger than myself, because then I feel like I become more interesting by being part of something more,” Hering said.
