Spirit week is supposed to be the one time during the school year when students show their school pride. So why is Jackson-Reed so unspirited?

This year, Homecoming fell on October 15th, with the week leading up to it declared spirit week. Most students at Jackson-Reed look forward to the homecoming festivities, which include theme week. But this year, our themes missed the mark. 

The four-day week began with Tuesday’s theme, school cliques. Our peers dressed up as their favorite cliche high school stereotype. Wednesday followed with a classic: pajama day. Students showed up to school looking like they had just  jumped out of bed and left the house (though admittedly, it was not a drastic deviation from standard attire). Throwback Thursday brought a variety of styles chosen from previous decades. Finally, the week came to an end with class colors Friday, a popular way of showing some school spirit. These themes might not seem too bad, but they failed to push students beyond the average, daily fashion we already see at Jackson-Reed.

Let’s start with school clique day: whether it is from your favorite movie, book, or song (or from your lived experiences at school), you have definitely heard about some form of high school clique. I saw many nerds and jocks throughout Jackson-Reed on Tuesday—some teachers even dressed emo. Although this theme sounds like a good idea, I do not see much creativity behind it. Aside from some nerd glasses or the occasional letterman jacket, people just wore what they usually do. Wouldn’t someone’s favorite high school clique just be the group they are already in? If so, there would be no difference in their appearance on this one day. 

Moving on to Wednesday’s theme, I initially thought that pajama day for the PSATs was a smart idea. However, after further consideration, I realized it was just banal. On any given day at Jackson-Reed, half of the people you pass in the halls are wearing pajamas—even more during standardized testing. It is not out of the ordinary to feel too tired in the morning to pick out an actual outfit. Plus, many pajamas look like regular clothes. Overall, this theme definitely fell short of my expectations.

Throwback Thursday, once a staple theme, is now basically every Thursday. In recent years, many different styles from previous decades have made a comeback. On a regular basis, people wear sweaters from the 80s, baggy jeans from the 90s, and baby tees from the early 2000s. Why would we have a whole spirit day dedicated to what we already see people wearing? 

Finally, the most classic spirit week theme is class colors day. This idea is not as disappointing as the others since we wear school colors for the powderpuff game, but it does raise a very important question: why were freshmen wearing green? Green is the most prominent school color, so seniors should wear it. 

Although it would be ideal to keep this theme for one of the spirit week days, I think class colors should be reserved for the Homecoming football game. Since spirit week was already shortened, this day was just taking up room for an even better theme. 

When it comes to theme days, there are so many possibilities. Adam Sandler day, where you dress in your best Adam Sandler streetwear attire, is one of my personal favorites. Seniors vs. babies, when underclassmen dress and act like newborn babies while upperclassmen represent senior citizens, is a close second. . There is character day, where students could dress up as their favorite movie or TV show character. Finally, anything but a backpack day would truly pull the week together. 

Spirit week themes represent a fun opportunity for our student body to come together and express our school pride. Hopefully, next year these themes will better capture the spirit of Jackson-Reed. •