It Will Make All the Other Teachers Feel Bad.
With Homecoming-type festivities in full swing, both boys are experiencing new types of “Spirit Week” at school.
For Shane, middle school “spirit” is, sadly, nothing like elementary school spirit. In elementary school, kids trip over themselves trying to out-spirit the other kids. They adore spirit week.
In middle school, something … shifts.
The kids become suddenly way too cool to dress up – but the concepts are so tempting that a lot of the sixth graders still give it a valiant effort.
Pajama Day is always popular. School spirit is popular, too. And this week, Shane gets to wear his Halloween costume all day (without the mask – NO MASKS! is the rule.)
But Shane’s school has a new theme this year: “Dress Like Your Favorite Teacher Day.”
Hm.
Most of the teachers just dress like people. They wear casual clothes, but not sloppy. And Shane’s favorite teacher is a woman.
“Should we email your English teacher and ask what she’s wearing on Wednesday?” I asked Shane, only half joking.
“I don’t think that day is a good idea,” he said. “If you dress like your favorite teacher, it will make all your other teachers feel bad.”
Somehow I never thought of that. Shane’s heart is always in the right place.
For Dylan, high school “spirit” is substantially less spirited than it was in middle school. Monday was Costume Day – and he had no idea if he should dress up, or not. So he shoved a cape and hat into his backpack and carried it around with him all day.
“Some of the kids really dressed up!” he exclaimed at the end of the day. “But most people just wore, like, superhero shirts and stuff.”
So now we know.
We got an email that mentioned the class with the most spirit getting some kind of reward. The email said that the freshman class always loses.
So I was surprised when Dylan said, “I think the freshmen dressed up more than any of the other classes this week.”
I wonder if this is because of the email threatening that freshmen would lose.
Either way, school spirit may not be what it was in elementary school – but it still exists.