by Emmanuel D’Agostino
What can we do to broaden and deepen school spirit?
Perhaps the greatest impediment to maximizing school spirit is the narrow scope of the events attended by many members of the school community.
“I feel sometimes like we’re very isolated in this school,” performing arts teacher Mary Mastandrea said. “I feel we’re all isolated. The fans who go to games go to games. The teachers who go to games go to games. The teachers who come to performing arts, go to performing arts, although some teachers really do try to get to see a lot of things if they can, if their time permits.”
At a meeting this past summer to examine spirit at the school led by social studies teacher Michael Normant, a similar concern arose. Normant advises the Superfans club at the school, which works to increase attendance at school events.
“Most students in the school have no idea what their classmates do outside the classroom,” Normant said. “And what I mean by that is, you sit in a room with people that play instruments, are in plays, play on sports teams, and you have no idea, because there’s really not a central place, there’s not really anything that shares that information with people. And, to me, that’s what school spirit is, it’s about knowing what your classmates do and supporting them, and supporting the school in general.”
Of course, Mastandrea and Normant are right. On that note, the Superfans have been taking several steps and submitting proposals to the administration to work to maximize school spirit. One such proposal involves “seasonal showcases,” which will be used to highlight athletic and performing arts events.
Since the Superfans’ inception a few years ago, Normant and student leaders of the club have been open to including students who are passionate about all aspects of school spirit, and Normant continues to hope that more students with interests regarding new areas in which school spirit can be expressed will show up.
He said the students who have gone to club meetings have been those who have been interested in sports, and he’s let that guide the club. This year, he’s working with performing arts teachers to increase spirit in that area, and he hopes to bring Superfan spirit to other areas of student activity in the future.
“‘Superfan’ sounds very sport-oriented, but that’s not our ultimate vision,” Normant said. “But for us to get from zero to all of a sudden promoting everything all at once would be really difficult, so we’re trying to take steps in that direction.”
He also made the point that the Superfans are a club, and as such, shouldn’t be blamed for only publicizing the events that students who attend want to focus on. In other words, he thinks they have the right to determine their scope.
Another proposal of the Superfans’ involves centralizing information about events, which was also a concern of Mastandrea’s.
“I think it would be great if there is more communication about everything we do,” she said.
It remains to be seen how well this can be carried out, but it’s good that it’s been recognized. Telling students where and when events are is an important first step to increasing attendance at them, but it’s only a first step.
As a senior and prospective collegiate student-athlete, I’ve seen several universities whose school spirit cultures should be emulated by our own student body. Interestingly enough, these schools don’t rely on huge enrollment or expensive traditions for their culture, meaning they provide good models for our school.
At my tour of Wesleyan University, a school better known for its theater than its athletics, my guide said school spirit isn’t so much centered around individual teams or plays, but rather a reciprocal culture regarding attendance at these events. A mentality shared by most students being, “I’ll attend your sporting event this week if you’ll attend my play next week,” and vice versa.
If we think about what makes our school so unique and well-liked, freedom and responsibility, bringing our best selves to school, and hard work over time- and take pride in its whole as opposed to any one team or group à la Wesleyan, we can easily find a source of energy and a reason to support each other in our various pursuits.
Another school I visited, Brandeis University, has a more concrete plan for increasing attendance and spirit at sporting events, titled “We The Jury” (Brandeis sports teams are called the Judges). Fans receive Jury Points for attending athletic events, which can be redeemed for We The Jury apparel including sweatshirts and blankets.
Even more interestingly, more popular sports, which students would have more incentive to attend anyway, are weighted with fewer points, giving students, for example, three times the points for attending fencing or track events as attending basketball ones. With funding from the school for Brookline apparel, we could adapt this program and include and appropriately weight concerts, Quiz Bowl tournaments, plays, you name it!
Perhaps nobody in the school community put the need for unified spirit better than social studies teacher Malcolm Cawthorne in his December 2013 Sagamore opinions piece lamenting the lack of enthusiasm regarding school competitions and games .
“Brookline provides many opportunities for students to shine against other schools in sports, drama, Quiz Bowl, music, robotics, journalism and many others,” he commented. “Yet we feel the need to paint faces and wear school colors for Powder Puff and not the Thanksgiving Day game nor any of the aforementioned interscholastic competitions.”
By uniting around what we love about our school, creating incentives for attendance, and centralizing information about events, we can remedy the problem Cawthorne points out, and give our school the spirit it deserves.
Emmanuel D’Agostino can be contacted at [email protected].
