At Divine Savior Holy Angels, we celebrate homecoming with just as much vigor and excitement as any co-ed school, with our dance becoming the talk of the school for weeks and our spirit days bringing smiles to the faces of everyone. Spirit days have been and continue to be a source of excitement for many dashers as it allows us not just a chance to be out of uniform but also to enjoy dressing up in fun themes with our friends. However, the yearly renewal of spirit day themes does beg the question, does the school need a revamp? This question was brought to The Word by sophomores who expressed their own annoyance about the repetition of themes. To find the answer to this question, we went straight to the student body. 

We started by speaking with members of the junior and senior classes When asked, senior Jane “Janie” Retzer said that she “do[es] enjoy the annual/repeating themes, because though some ideas are constant, such as family day, as we progress at DS, we get to move through the theme, for example, seniors finally dressing as dads.” Janie even goes on to say that she believes “these traditions help to excite our student body to continue their years at DSHA.” Later, juniors Evelyn “Evie” Coffou and Meghan Walsh both agreed with Janie’s ideas about the repetition: “You’re excited to get to the next grade so you get to dress as the next age group.”At this point, it appeared as though dashers were happy with the traditional themes. 

 To better understand how dashers may feel, I set out to ask underclasswomen students how they felt about the repetition, only to find conflicting opinions. Sophomore Kate Ambrose disagreed with others saying, “I don’t like it. The only good ones are the mom and dad, so everyone else is just wearing the same thing.” Then after further questioning she expressed that “as a senior it would be fun, you could make up for it” but that it is ultimately “only fun for seniors” and that spride should “just throw it out.” Freshman Jazziah Watson expressed different ideas, stating, “I honestly enjoyed family day because I got to dress in a onesie” though she does acknowledge that “for some freshman it was embarrassing.” When I brought up the supposed staleness of spirit week days to Eva Marie Moss, senior and current Co-Penny, she said that school pride has worked to come up with new fun themes while “ keep[ing] the classics, aka, family day.” It’s safe to say that the student body has differing opinions about spirit day.

The disagreement over family day is one that could shed light on other possible concerns of underclasswomen. Why do seniors get the “good” themes and are the only class to have their own separate cheer after the shared school one? Should seniors continue to enjoy these small privileges, a sign of their near completion of high school, or should the playing ground be leveled?