Definition of school spirit
School spirit is the atmosphere at a school. Especially in the U.S. the students are able to feel it everyday because of different activities or other possibilities. It could be very simple like wearing the merch from that school you are from, but it could also be the attendance at athletics events like the awesome football games. It includes cheerleading, an amazing team, professional coach's and a shouting and supporting crowd.
A good school spirit is very important for the students, so they feel involved in their everyday school life which is why they and also their teachers have more fun and ambition going to school. One more benefit is the forming of a community where the students can feel that they are accepted, not alone and that they can reach every common goal they want.
An other aspect is the representation of the school. Many educators explain that the behaviour of children, which reflects on the school, is often related to their school spirit. If they did represent it positive, it will outline the student investment for an outstanding name of their school.
After all it is the definition of supporting and encouraging everyone around you. The biggest goal is always to feel the sense of community, reaching your goals and having fun. You do it for your schoolmates, friends, teachers and for you!
The importance of school spirit
Students experience school spirit in different ways. One of those feelings might be the unimaginable atmosphere at a full football game. Whatever it is, it has for sure a very important impact on the whole school.
One important aspect is the improvement in student's commitment to school education. A great and strong school spirit can motivate the students in school. It supports the pursuit to be the best in and outside the classroom.
In addition school spirit supports the athletes in an immense way and creates a positive sporting environment. A big student section impacts the sport events because players are immediately more motivated and the stands can expect a successful game.
Another positive impact is the improvement in student behavior. If all students hold together and is one community, no one will want to break this bond and act out of order. That can also lead to fewer bullying at schools.
Lastly, a great school spirit is an emergence of strong, bright and healthy students. Sports keep the students updated and give them a healthy live balance with sport and fun.
Goals and learnings of school spirit
Especially students make a huge profit out of a good school spirit. They are learning new techniques, but also more about themselves. This knowledge is decisive for their upcoming life which is going to make it a lot easier.
Analysing the formal aspects shows that students will get a lot of new skills like:
- solving issues by creating a plan which leads them to the solution for their problems
- receive leadership skills
- be able to collaborate between students and other members of the school community
- increasing the level of pride, teamwork and enthusiasm
Furthermore, there are some aspects for the individual self: They get personal skills like:
- motivation everyday because an amazing school spirit makes school feel special, which leads to the mindset that the students want to be as good as possible
- diversity is okay and even more it is a good thing because it results into different spirits
- in the end you can still feel the togetherness although there are different groups and generations:
that is due to the traditions you share
- the result is finding and being the best version of yourself and the possibility to represent it
- the encouraging of other people push's confidence of students
Video analysis
This video shows the winners of GameTimePA's competition voting the most hype student section around the MidPenn district in 2022. Northern High School was chosen as exactly that category. They got the title and were voted most hype student section according to all MidPennSports. GameTimePA is a broadcasting and media production company. They report about the daily events all around York. A big part of the articles of "daily record" are about the most recent and interesting sport events in York. Northern High School is a school in Northern York. That means that they are relevant for the media production company.
This GameTimePA competition was strictly online and all people had access to it. A couple bigger schools around the MidPenn district were competing against each other and the school with the most online votes was about to win the title "Most hype student section". The daily report media production company agreed to make a promoting video showing the winner, in this case Northern High School.
This video shows an away football game against the Mechanicsburg Area Senior High School. Even though it was not a home game, about 100-200 students came to support Northern and their football players. This video highlights once again how strong this school's community is. The community at Northern High School is called "Northern Nation". Northern Nation owns their title to the fullest. In the video you can see that everyone is covered in black paint or fully dressed in black clothes. This symbolizes a strong connection and fun to act as a closed group. In addition, age gaps doesn't matter at all. Teenagers between the age of fourteen and eighteen are cheering each other on. Everybody is dancing, cheering and making extremely loud noises by singing and screaming. In front of the student section cheerleaders are dancing and singing different school supporting songs and slogans. All students can join and appear as one unit. Often students prepare posters as a special motivation for the players. Moreover the video also presents the Northern High School mascot. This mascot is a polar bear, who is supposed to represent all students in Dillsburg.
Overall, you can say that everyone is motivated and completely supportive. There are no bad feelings, fights or discussions. Everyone holds together and is one nation.
Interview with Mr. Steve Lehman
In order to have a proper and real connection to Northern High School, we contacted the principal of the school, Mr. Lehman. He was totally up for an interview and interested in helping us. We were able to call him and ask him about his personal opinion how important school spirit is. We thought that he can give us the best personal impression as he has been the principal of Northern High School for years.
In the following text I, Leonie, will introduce you to my questions for him and show what his views on them are.
“What is school spirit for you, Mr. Lehman?“
“[…] School spirit for me is wanting our students to feel connected to their school. […] We want that it’s not just a place they have to go to everyday but a place that becomes for at least four years part of their identity. And even more that it becomes a place they want to come back to in a couple years, for example for a football game […]. They should be able to feel pride of where they’re from. We want them to want to go to Northern High School.“
“How does Northern High School support their school spirit?“
“We have a unique polar bear, it’s our mascot. And our color is kind of unique. Not many schools have purple as their school color. We try to promote the school color and our mascot, which could also lead to a badge of honor […] that you are a Northern polar bear. Sports end to be where we get the most spectators and people coming from the community with a very strong student section that shows up. We try to promote good sportsmanship and coming and having fun. […] We give the students programs to really promote their talents and put them on display. […] And it’s also good for people who don’t have kids to see not only the kids on the internet or on social media […] but to come to one of our school events and seeing how kids are doing really good things and being involved and not just causing troubles how teenagers can be portrayed sometimes. We try to hold a lot of events that put a positive light on our students.“
“Do you do pep rallies and how do they affect Northern‘s school spirit?“
“We usually do at least one in the fall to start the school year and we recognize sports teams, music programs and then […] kids who are involved in clubs. [These pep rallies] […] are funny, silly competitions to have for example one person from the band against a person usually from a certain sports team […]. And cheerleaders and pep bands are there too. Some kids who are involved are really into it and then some kids who aren’t really involved are like I don’t really care about it. But if you have the right student leaders it can be a lot of fun. So there has been years that it’s gone really, really well and then there’s been a few years where there wasn’t a tone of energy in the gymnasium when we did it. […] But in general one or two in a year go pretty well and bring again positive energy to fall or later in the spring and for getting ready for the fun sport season. […] We also definitely try to include clubs and music so that all people can feel involved and not only sports get all the attention. […]“
“Do school sports affect Northern‘s school spirit and what sport does it affect most?“
“Yeah, for sure. In America in general football is a big deal but in Pennsylvania in particular. […] At Northern, football also seems to give the biggest crowd. It’s kind of the friday nights in the fall. They definitely give the largest crowd […] [even when] the football team [is] not our most successful team. We still get large crowds for football games because it’s just something fun to do. […] Even for people who don’t like the sport too much there is good food and there is a lot of people to socialize what is fun.“
“Do you think that school spirit protects Northern’s students from being bullied?“
“Yes, I do actually. We have a little over a thousand students at Northern […] and last year 80 percent of our students were involved in some kind of sport or music program […] and when you are connected to an organization like that you tend to have more friends and more people who have you’re back. So I definitely feel like there is less bullying involved as when you’re just here because you have to be here […].“
In conclusion, I got the knowledge that Mr. Lehman definitely agrees to the original question of our project. He supported our analysis by saying that sports affect the school spirit. His very last sentence of the interview made his view pretty clear: “The involvement of our students we have here does improve the school spirit which also improves less bullying.“ This interview was an enrichment for our project and gave us even more important facts and insights.