Among most high schools worldwide are students who take huge pride in their school by having school spirit. The idea of this is in good spirits, but frankly, I find the idea of this weird.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe Placer High School is a good school if not a great one. But what I believe applies to pretty much every single high school.

Normal activity that suggests you are of high spirit is dressing up based on your school colors, this is probably the simplest way of honoring your school. More advanced ways to gain a higher school spirit consist of attending all the sporting events and chanting the name of your school. This also applies to rallies, which almost all students are forced to attend. 

Participating in pro-spirit activities generally paints you as a student who is proud of your school. 

Whenever I see people cheering about Placer, I can’t help but develop strong feelings toward those people, and immediately I typecast them. 

   I see school as a place where learning takes place, and schools should focus on this objective. Of course, students are humans, and schools are set up with activities that make student life generally enjoyable, for example, clubs. But one of the most popular activities is sports.

Some people love sports to the point that their entire social life is based on this, without being on the team they’re just a nobody.

Some students go to the extreme of only engaging in school just to be eligible to play sports on a team. This tells us that these people are focused on something other than school but on scoring touchdowns or something like that. 

Then a culture around sports arises. Each game hundreds of people show up, cheering for their team. I have talked about sports, signaling that they are the main attraction for sports games, but these events are not limited to some guys throwing a ball. Some girls cheer for the team and band players, so many people don’t just show up to see some guy throw a ball. So these games serve a purpose other than watching some guy throw a ball to serve as a place where students can meet up and socialize.

A place that is a center of socialization is bound to be a place where social ladders develop. People will cheer for the ball-throwing team, and if you don’t, you’re a loser.

So my guess as to why people have pride in their school is because of sports. People who like high school love the high school experience. They love going to prom, playing with a ball, hanging out with the cool kids, etc. Most of these actions are probably done to fit in. I mean, if offered to do something that will damage your health, but makes you seem cool, most people will surprisingly do it. 

These people won’t go to college, because high school was already a good experience. These people peaked in high school. The best times of their life were their time in high school. For others this was an experience of growing up, adjusting to the expectations of being an adult. But these people focused on being a teen. Years later they still tell people that they ruled these hallways. 

The average student spends four years going to high school. This may seem like a large amount of time, but it’s a period of your life that goes by much faster than thought. 

The time spent in high school is ultimately meaningless. For most, a life of sports ends when high school does, but the learning doesn’t. 

For students that attend a college, only one thing is guaranteed, which is learning. Are students able to only throw a ball?

Why would you care so much about a school that doesn’t care about you? Over the years, some students have arisen that truly made a lasting impact on the school. Those students are the ones who will be remembered. Whether they were a pro at throwing a ball or donated a building. For the average student, they were just there to learn. 

So why should you be happy to be at a school that you’ll just leave in a couple of years and everyone will forget about you? 

To get into high school you just go to tell the school, “Hey, I’m going here.” College is complicated, way more complicated.

In middle school, you might study hard and try your best, but you’re going to go to high school.

I realize there are high schools that require more effort to get into with tests and such, but I’m talking about the average high school. If you get into a high school it would be that weird to have pride for it.

To get into a good college, you’ll have to be in top form from 9th to 12th grade. Just one B will destroy you. You’ll need good extracurricular activities, a letter of recommendation, good scores on standardized tests and so much more that my puny 9th grade brain couldn’t even think about.

So when you get into a college, it would feel very good. You’ll remember all of the hard work you did and you’ll be happy. So when you go to that college, it’s alright to show pride.

People get attached to their high school since it’s the only one they probably went to. If they weren’t proud, they would be disappointed in their life. So it’s okay to like the school. 

There’s a difference between hating high school and hating your school. I for one, heavily dislike high school. But I wouldn’t say the same for the actual school. I mainly dislike high school in general because of the people, who are so incredibly annoying.

I dislike the high school experience, so I don’t have the spirit for school.

A school without pride is pretty much just a learning institution, which is okay for me. I don’t care about the enjoyment of a student. People do, that’s why we have classes such as leadership, to promote school spirit. Without sports, we wouldn’t have spirit. So the school will just be a place to learn. It would be boring but it would be a place full of learning.

The school would be completely different without school spirit, drastically. People would be more focused and more obedient. This might have some drawbacks later in life. Some people would probably not like it.

It would also be drastically different from high school life today, and I wouldn’t enjoy that. I guess hearing people scream PLA CER at the top of their lungs is something I have to live with.