Picture walking into school, knowing everyone is supposed to be dressed up, but only a handful of students are. What’s meant to add spirit to the school week can end up feeling embarrassing, uneven, and sometimes stressful. These activities are designed to bring students together, but when participation is low, are the dress-up days working for everyone?
Spirit week at Benilde St. Margaret’s is a week full of activities and joy. Spirit days are often around dances, holidays, and special events. The most anticipated feature of BSM spirit weeks is the dress-up days. Dress-up days are fun themes set each day of the week to bring school spirit to the halls. Themes could range from monochrome to Adam Sandler Day. Members of the student council and spirit squad stand by the entrance waiting to hand out spirit tickets to turn in for a potential prize. Although a fun surprise waits, not many are handed out, and one big reason is how dress-up days are decided.
Right now, spirit week themes are usually chosen by the student council or spirit squad. While those groups put in effort, they don’t always represent the entire student body. If the goal is participation, then everyone should have a voice in what those days look like.
When small groups pick the themes, it can lead to ideas that only connect with a portion of the student body. Some dress-up days are too specific, too complicated, or just not interesting to the majority of people. For example, during the week of prom, a dress-up theme was “2016 day,” where you dress using popular clothing trends from 2016. This could be difficult for people to dress up for, because most students, especially underclassmen, who were too young to pay attention to pop culture trends in 2016.. Although there is a new social media trend where “2026 is the new 2016”, it is a notable idea, but still falls under a specific category that is hard for people to dress up for.
As a result, many students choose not to participate, not because they don’t have school spirit, but because the themes can sometimes be a lot of work or uncomfortable to be in. The fear of embarrassment could also hold back the participation. Students could feel embarrassed to dress in certain clothing that could be too ‘out there’ for them. However, dress-up days are targeted to be creative and fun, not just something you could wear every day. This makes it difficult for both the people making the themes and the people participating.
That’s why BSM should open up the decision-making process. Simple solutions like school-wide votes, suggestion boxes, or polls could make a big difference. This could make students at BSM feel like their opinion matters more, making it more likely for people to participate. This could help choose more accessible dress-ups that are still fun to participate in and make it easier for everyone to join in without being out of their comfort zone.
Spirit weeks are already special at BSM, but giving all students a say in dress-ups would make spirit weeks more inclusive, more fun, and successful. Real participation can come through with everyone’s input and not just a few groups.