Dear Seniors,
As I write this commentary, Spirit Week is drawing to a close. And what do we have to show for it? I hope that your greatest impact is not a campus littered with colored paper and a senior class that may actually believe that ditching school was a solid display of school pride. Allow me to clarify my thesis: Class competition is a fun and healthy enterprise, but school spirit must be much more than a rainbow of trash and poor choices. True school spirit, even amidst class competition, should bring the entire campus together. Are we not all Stallions?
Please do not miss the point. Class competition should bring out your best. A fact all too often missed these days is that you win, not by tearing down your opponents, but by outperforming them. I am talking about commitment to San Juan Hills, not to your own ego. So will your legacy to this campus be “We highlighted the weakness of others!” or “We ourselves were strong!” You may not be sure of the difference, but (make no mistake) everyone else is.
So here is my vision for future Spirit Weeks. (Juniors, take note!) The seniors coordinate great acts of service for the campus and especially for the underclassmen. The seniors show the juniors what solid campus leadership looks like. Be those leaders whose first concern is to represent the school, the entire school, with pride and integrity. Show the rest of the classes and your teachers what four years of being here has done for you. Can you imagine the power of such acts? Can you imagine the legacy that the class of 201_ could leave for the class of 2020? I can. I do imagine it. And it makes this week’s events seem pretty disappointing.
Kylie Kerkow • Apr 5, 2013 at 1:50 PM
I’ve never been one of your students but I disagree somewhat with your opinion.
I understand that having Monday be a ditch day was not a very good representation of the school but it did get approved. If it didn’t get approved, it wouldn’t have happened. I can assure you that the class of 2013 has always been spirited and taken pride in our school. Our class cleaned up all of the stuff on campus and pulled weeds to make our school look better than it already does. It is unfair for you to place the blame for all of the negative aspects of clash of the classes on the seniors. Other classes broke rules and weren’t punished for it at all. If there are going to be rules they should at least be enforced. This whole competition puts everyone against each other and I feel like it should just be taken away because none of the classes did a great job at representing our school in a positive way. We love our school and I think we’re a little bit disappointed with the way this whole thing works. I totally respect your opinion, however, and do not mean to be offensive in any way.