I moved to Brookline from Chile in August of 2023, just a month before the start of this school year. When I arrived, I was thrilled to see what school-spirit activities I could be involved in, especially since my old school had so many, including school dances, competition-style spirit weeks with each grade competing against the others, and more. But when school started in September, I was not aware of any spirit activities we had here at the high school. If you asked me again today, I still couldn’t tell you with full confidence what these activities are and what they mean to the students.

This particularly stood out to me after seeing the low level of participation in our school’s Spirit Week in the first week of March. The week made me wonder why this lack of interest, involvement, and knowledge of school spirit exists.

Even though sports games and events like Powderpuff that occur earlier in the year at the school have a high level of participation, students aren’t nearly as enthusiastic about activities such as Spirit Week. Events like Homecoming and other community bonding activities that are common in other schools such as my own back in Chile do not occur here, and the very few spirit activities we have do not seem to motivate the student body. I wish they did. But, the students themselves aren’t entirely to blame for the lack of school spirit. We must change the information and organization surrounding these activities to make them more engaging for students and easier for school staff.

I believe that the positioning of Spirit Week is odd and less motivating because it is not adjacent to any other event. Most schools around the country have their Spirit Week at the same time as the football season begins, but that is not the case here at our school. The event occurs in early March, right after February Break, and is only advertised on short notice, making it hard for students to even be aware of such an event, let alone be a part of it.

I only heard about Spirit Week from an announcement my chemistry teacher made to the class a couple of days before February Break and nobody seemed to understand what it was. Besides, the dates and type of activities they gave us were stated incorrectly, already setting a disappointing precedent.

There seems to be an unspoken rejection of Spirit Week. Since students have not been engaged in the week for a long time, the lack of overall excitement makes it hard for newer students at the school, including freshmen, to want to be a part of it. Many students don’t want to participate because they fear getting laughed at or looked at weirdly for wearing something such as a onesie to school when it should be something everybody is motivated to do for fun. It shouldn’t be because of peer pressure that students don’t want to dress up and show their support for the school.

We need a more encouraging environment surrounding spirit activities because it is a fun way to make our school community stronger. It has the potential to unite students from all friend groups and grades into one big activity that is not defined by whether or not you participate in sports, audition-based programs, or other school activities.

When did it stop being fun to dress up and see your classmates support our school community? Your guess is as good as mine. But I believe this should change, and we can make it enjoyable for everybody again. Adding more activities, keeping students informed, and linking these activities to specific school events that everybody knows about are a few ways we can improve the relationship between students and the school spirit. After all, who doesn’t want to bring anything but a backpack to school for a day?