Opinion: Some spirit week themes prove difficult for students to partake
October 10, 2022
Each year, students celebrate the week heading into homecoming by dressing up for the school’s spirit week. Chosen by the student council, there is a different theme every day of the week; it is then up to the students to decide if they would like to participate in the themes. This year’s themes were Jersey Day on Monday, Tie Dye Tuesday, PJ Day on Wednesday, Decades Day on Thursday, and Orange and Black Day on Friday.
Many students enjoyed some classic themes this year, and have enjoyed participating in them for years. These include days themes such as PJ Day and Orange and Black Day. However, some newer themes, like Tie Dye Tuesday and Decades, the day did not sit as well with the students of Fenton High.
Students have always had favorites and least favorites when it comes to spirit week. Reasons such as the “most comfortable” or “the coolest” are factors that keep students coming back.
“My favorite theme of spirit week was PJ Day,” junior Chloe Justus said. “It was so nice to be able to be comfortable while learning.”
Although spirit week is a clever way to get students excited for homecoming, this year’s themes were arguably quite difficult to take part in. Some themes seemed a bit random and gave students little freedom to create an outfit. For example, Decades Day restricted students of each grade to dress up for one specific decade. In turn, most students weren’t able to participate because of their lack of options.
“The hardest day to find an outfit for was Decades Day,” senior Emilee Kostizen said. “I’m a senior and we had the 2000s, but I don’t have any low-rise jeans or anything to fit that decade.”
While the student council is able to decide what themes are chosen for spirit week, they are still under strict restrictions as well.
“When choosing our spirit week themes we have many restrictions,” junior Isabelle Yambrick said. “Sometimes it becomes quite difficult picking themes as the administration has to go through every possible outcome that could occur if we choose a certain theme.”
These outcomes could consist of an inappropriate reference or outfit, or something offensive that must be avoided. With that being said, the student council is given limited options of themes that would have a low chance of having a bad outcome. That is the reason why some themes are seen year after year, but that is also the main way a theme can become a fan favorite.
Seeing students and teachers take on the themes is a great way to get to know someone’s sense of humor through their funny costumes. Students at Fenton High usually find spirit week as a fun way to express themselves, and love to show off their school spirit to their friends and classmates.
“I have always loved going all out for spirit week,” senior Brad Pattan said. “Dressing up always makes school so much more fun. Seeing my teachers’ and classmates’ reactions to my outfits always makes dressing up worth it.”
However, this year some students disagreed with the choices of the spirit week themes, and others chose to not participate entirely.
“I noticed that not a lot of kids participated in Decades Day,” Justus said. “People didn’t really know what to wear because they may not be familiar with the decade that their grade was given.”
The 2022 homecoming spirit week themes were all themes that we have seen before, with no new showstopping ideas. With this being said, some students preferred themes from past years, and hope to bring some of them back to Fenton High for future spirit weeks. Other students would like to come up with new ideas entirely.
“I have always liked Twin Day, and we should definitely have something like a Fictional Character Day,” Pattan said. “I think it would be awesome to come up with some crazier ideas next year that all of the students would find funny.”
It is safe to say that this spirit week showed a lot of participation, with great outfits and even better school spirit. Some classic themes were hit, while others were no more than media core. The themes themselves may have not been as exciting as they could have been, but the outcome from the staff and students certainly made up for it.
