AISG: Lack of School Spirit?

As school events and sports tournaments come and go, so does the questioning of our school’s spirit. This year’s Tri-Cities Volleyball had an unprecedented amount of students supporting and cheering on our teams, but this isn’t always the case. This brings up some questions: does AISG have a lack of spirit and is school spirit even necessary?

Several students and teachers have recently noticed the lack of AISG’s school spirit. Ms. Partee, who believes in the importance of school spirit, commented, “Fostering a sense of community and making people feel invested where they are really makes a difference in a lot of ways.” People often find school to be a depressing place; however, with a more spirited student body, school would feel like a much brighter place to be in.

Others don’t believe that there is a lack of spirit, such as Mr. Madden who commented, “[School spirit] depends on particular year groups, especially the seniors.” School spirit does tend to heavily rely upon the seniors as they are the oldest group of students in the whole school. Most students look up to seniors and are influenced by the amount of school spirit that seniors display. Despite this, it is still the student body as a whole’s decision to determine whether or not to be spirited.

The necessity of school spirit is debatable. On the other hand, most find it necessary as it can bolster students’ enthusiasm to participate in class and school-wide events. It also creates a sense of familiarity and can make the student body feel as if they are one. Freshman Jiyoon K. commented, “I believe that school spirit is important since it allows all of the students and teachers to be brought together. It also creates a strong bond among students, no matter whether they are a freshman or a senior.” Students can often feel distant from the rest of their peers; school spirit allows students to connect despite these feelings.

A general consensus among students and teachers is that school spirit relies mostly on students. They need to be the ones encouraging each other and supporting the school teams. Alex K., a sophomore, stated, “School spirit should encourage participation without teacher coercion. Ideally, teachers shouldn’t ask students to participate in school spirit because that usually produces directly opposite results.” Other interviewees agreed that it is up to the students to determine how spirited our school is. Ultimately, forcing students to be enthusiastic and participate isn’t very effective.

School spirit may not be necessary, but having it causes absolutely no harm. With greater enthusiasm and spirit amongst the student body, we can make our school environment a more cheerful place.