La Cañada Shows Spirit

La Cañada High School holds five spirit weeks a year to promote school spirit by encouraging the participation of students in big school events such as sports games, assemblies, and formal dances.

During these spirit weeks, the Associated Student Body (ASB) suggests themed clothes on designated days. For this winter assembly week from January 12 to 16, the school decided to have Club Day, Twin Day, Game Day, and Class Shirts Day.

A school is a basic community that teaches various skills, morals, and other lessons that we need to live in a society. With these special weeks, students are able to embody the Spartan Spirit and become closer to each other.

Lina Lee, a vice president of Honor Veterans Club that delivers thank you letters and gifts for retired veterans, told JSR, “Club Day gave us an opportunity to spread our club missions. We were able to represent what we really care about with the club shirts and these shirts created a sense of belonging in the club too.”

Yet some students did not feel comfortable about this event. Jihee Yoon, a school newspaper editor, stated that the short lasting period of the week might only bring a temporary sense of unity. Yoon also added that when themed clothes topic is ambiguous, it discourages people from being engaged.

According to Yoon, “I wish that our school did stuff other than just wearing a particular themed clothing because dressing up a certain is not the best way to promote spirit. Maybe adding activities to increase student participation and interaction help boost school spirit.”

The controversial opinions brought up a question, “Does the spirit week actually help to unite students together and what we can improve to gather more people?” According to an informal survey throughout the school, anonymous users gave an average of 3.5 on 1 to 5 scale to a question asking if these weeks enable communication among students who have similar interests and make stronger bonds with friends. Some survey takers introduced more ways to embody school spirit, such as planning a game day or going on a special field trip to make unforgettable memories.

If the school promotes more activities to increase student participation and interaction, students will not only gain pride but also practice civic virtue as members of community.