Spirit weeks are always part of the school year, but they have become something that very few students participate in which causes some needed change to happen. 

They are normally held before a big school event like the annual Homecomings in October and sometimes Christmas break. The school makes announcements over the speakers and advertises the themes weeks in advance. The thing that is important to ask here, other than if anyone will even take part in the week’s theme, is why don’t students even participate in the first place?

Spirit weeks seem to be a norm at schools, a tradition one could say. Most schools host them at least once a school year. 

The thing is, they get boring. Very boring, to the point where some students are embarrassed to participate. The themes rarely change every year, losing the meaning and excitement behind them for students. This results in fewer and fewer students participating every year. 

With a decreasing amount of students participating, it then can become stressful for high schoolers to decide whether to follow the set themes or not. When asked why she doesn’t partake in spirit weeks, sophomore Alina Chi says, “I am worried that if I do dress up, I’ll be the only one”. 

Chi points out here the stress behind the subject as to why students don’t participate. Since not everyone participates, those who maybe want to follow the themes feel obligated not to because they will stick out. Everyone just wants to fit in, right?

At the high school football games, themes are also set for the students to wear. On those Friday nights, everyone participates in the themes. How is it that everyone follows those themes, but not the ones in school? 

Another sophomore, Maddy Lemmon says, “[At] football games you know everyone is going to follow the themes because it’s just what people do”. What Lemmon points out here is that fitting in plays a big role in the participation of themes. So now the question for the school is, how can the themes have more popularity during the school days?

Change the themes. Make it more exciting, fun, and engaging. The school could change up the themes from the past several years. Gracie Durzo, a sophomore, points out, “We have done so many color outs. They should change it to anything but those”. Durzo points out that the repeating of ideas is ok once in a while, but it’s about time to change it up. 

Chi says that “…anything but a backpack day”, would be something that almost every student would participate in because it’s new and the concept is just overall entertaining for everyone. Overall, the themes need to be altered to be more engaging and amusing for the students to be able to be enjoyed and take part in more.