This past week, if you saw groups of students wearing stunning pajamas or bright orange tutus, you might have been witnessing one of the annual Charlottesville High School spirit weeks. During the exciting week, ending with the winter pep rally before the Varsity boys basketball game against Western Albemarle High School, spirit week gets students enthusiastic about school pride. 

School spirit is the sense of identity and community within members of an educational location. Spirit week can be in any form through many institutions, and representatives of each can dress in organized decoration to show either grade or overall academy enthusiasm. Student behavior also reflects on the school; representing it well shows a degree of student investment in their institution’s representation. 

During this semester’s past spirit week, which ran from February 3rd-7th, students were encouraged to go all out in the name of school fun. The themes for this week included the following: PJ Monday, Twin Day Tuesday, Class Color Wednesday (class colors can be viewed in the atrium), Denim Day Thursday and Black Knight Nation Friday. These themes were chosen by the SCA, with the help of student input.

The K.T.R. wanted more information on student opinions regarding the subject. In a recent survey, an anonymous responder mentioned hopes for a new theme in upcoming spirit week events. They commented that “Some new ideas could be Character/Halloween dress-up, social issue awareness themed outfits, or dress like someone else (celebrity, teacher, one of your friends).” In forthcoming years, it is hopeful that these student ideas can be incorporated into SCA decisions. 

Most people’s favorite part of spirit week is comparing outfits with friends and taking pictures showing school pride. Audrey Ragsdale (10) previously commented on her looking forward to the week, saying, “I love that everyone is brought together by participating in the spirit. In the mornings you see friends exchanging clothes and doing each other’s face paint and going all out.” Hopefully, the K.T.R. and other students will continue to see dripped-out outfits and school pride. “Go Black Knights!” says Frank Mhyre.