Field Day Commotion

Tuesday, October 11, the high school student body participated in its first 2016-17 year Field Day. The students played dodge ball; the Wind house won for boys and Fire for the girls. Although the activity was dynamic and cheerful, there were some imperfections that degraded the overall quality of the event.

For students who were jaded by two hectic school days after the October break, forty-five minutes outside in the heat on the football pitch caused some irritation and complaint. Furthermore, the first five to ten minutes were spent arranging the teams and counting the number of players. Although the team arrangement process improved over time, there was still some griping.

The girls seemed to have finished all of their dodgeball games fairly, but there were many free riders in the boys’ games. These free riders joined games they were not a part of; some Fire boys played for Wind and some Water boys played as Earth.

The flaws were not only in disorderly management. Every time a game ended, StuCo members would announce the teams that would be playing next, but the microphone volume was too loud. Students were found covering their ears when announcements were made. Sinou Thangal said, “it was very painful. It was as if they thought half of the students were deaf.”

According to StuCo supervisor Ms. Dean, most of the administrative problems were due to scheduling issues. The high school event was unfortunately delayed, and because middle school had the gym reserved, “the field day literally had to be out in the field.” Ms. Dean added, “because the field is much bigger, there were also problems with tracking people.”

On the other hand, the goal of StuCo is to unite the student body more cohesively through different activities. Ms. Dean said that “we were able to cheer on and take a break from the normal schedule.” StuCo President Helen Liao commented, “the main point of these activities is to get more people to join these community events. Boys were especially participative in the event.” Although the weather was hot and humid, the dodgeball activity was able to reinvigorate people.

Meanwhile, StuCo is searching for more ways to induce school spirit with a more systematic and distinct approach. For instance, StuCo emailed high school students recently to find out what they would want most for Spirit Week.