How About You?

 Looking for ways to avoid the reptile in the room by telling you about the good things happening, I turn once again to the mixed bag that is working in an elementary school. 

As noted here on several occasions, Spirit Week is a great example of just how mixed that bag can be. The bottom line is the line between those who do and those who do not. Participate, that is. With the fragile egos of the pre-teens in fourth and fifth grade, we do not have high expectations for participation in those grades. Wearing your pajamas to school is a wide open invitation for taunting, and most of our "big kids" avoid it like the plague. 

The response to Character Day is a little curious, considering how pitched the excitement gets for students of all ages for Halloween. Wearing a costume at school is something that we have to limit to after lunch on October 31st. But as a part of Spirit Week, you would never know that these were the same kids who could not wait to pull on their Mario overalls and stick on that fake mustache. There was a sea of Disney-adjacent princesses in Kindergarten to Second grade, with a sudden drop-off in the number of tiaras starting in third grade. 

Twin Day might have been the most successful from the perspective of how much of a uniform our kids seem to favor. The number of black hoodies and Crocs suggest pre-planning, but the truth is that they all tend to dress alike anyway. Those that made the effort to talk to their friends to wear matching T-shirts or stripes suggest bonds that run beyond playground interaction. 

And now let's pause to state what I believe is obvious: Since we are sending home notes and electronic reminders to parents, these caregivers must share some responsibility for the apathy we see in our hallways. These are the folks we assume were traumatized as youths for wearing their Pikachu PJs to school once. Once is all it takes, apparently. 

Which brings us to the highlight, for me and many of our staff. Turn The Switch Day asked students and teachers to switch places, at least as far as appearance goes. Remember those black hoodies and Crocs? Many of us grownups searched around to find just the right outfit for fitting in. Again, there were no fourth or fifth grade students willing to dress up like their teachers. Which didn't keep the grownups for clowning them hard with their costumes. Lots of shuffling about and mumbling, complaining about lunch, and wondering when it would be time to go home. 

That felt cathartic. It almost made me reconsider my mostly contained disdain for Spirit Week. When Friday finally rolled around and we all wore our blue and gold to celebrate our school's new partnership with the Golden State Warriors' reading program, it was an easy ask. The number of kids who were going to wear their Steph Curry jersey to school was pretty high on any given Friday anyway. 

We've Got Spirit, Yes We Do! We've Got Spirit, How About You?

Not so much.