Chasing Grace

Ah yes. Spirit Week. One of the joys of living so near the high school.

One solid half hour of honking horns, screaming teenagers, drums, whistles and air horns from 7:00 to 7:30 in the morning. It was a such a great way to start our day.

A bit later, on my morning walk, I was passing through the high school parking lot. I happened to strike up a conversation with one of the faculty who was just arriving to work. She looked me in the eye and said, “I hate spirit week. It brings out the worst in them.” She told me one year she found a group of freshmen huddled together in the library, afraid to venture into the halls because of some sort of ‘hazing’ the older kids were putting them through in the name of school spirit. Her opinion was that having the classes compete to see who can make the most noise and create the wildest costumes does nothing to further them academically. Her idea would be to have them compete on a project that would allow them to use their brains to solve problems and cultivate skills that would benefit them in their lives. What a concept, eh? She also explained that she is in the minority. How unfortunate!

I passed a car in the lot that had painted on it’s windows, “Seniors! We feel good!”. No surprise really, as it seems to me that ‘feelings’ have taken priority over ‘thoughts’ in the public school system these days. It seems instead of teaching children to use their mental powers for reason and understanding, they are taught that feeling good is more important than anything. Even something as banal as ‘Let’s Make a Difference!’ or ‘We Are the Future!’ would have been preferable, in my opinion.

Please do not click the following link if you are easily offended. I took this photo on my walk this morning, and I think it pretty much sums up the attitude of these children during spirit week at Milford High School, at least from what I’ve observed over the three years I’ve lived here. I’m sure this child’s parents are so very proud.