by Pharrah Lowther
On Friday September 13th, we had our first all school pep rally of the year for Homecoming. The reaction from Middle School students was less than favorable. We understand that a lot of people put time and energy into making an event for everyone to enjoy and to try and build hype. We realize that when we are in the Upper School and in charge of running and performing in pep rallies that we might have a better appreciation of how hard it is to run an all school event for hundreds of people. Despite this understanding however, we couldn’t help our Middle School critics from commenting that the energy was really low and everyone looked so over it. It seemed like nobody wanted to be there, and it was sad.
I asked a few middle schoolers what they thought and this is what they had to say:
What did you think of the pep rally today?
“Um, I thought that it was unfair because the middle schoolers never win the spirit stick, like, ever. And there were only lower school judges, and the lower school always wins. Also, it just seemed kind of awkward, and it was kind of improv. And it just wasn’t that hype, just kind of loud. ”
- An 8th grader
“I thought the pep rally wasn’t as energetic as it usually is, and it was no surprise that the lower school won. The whole thing is kind of rigged against the upper and middle school.”
- A 7th grader
“I feel like it was very mid. If you compare it to last year, it is so much better. The spirit stick goes to lower school and it gets boring because you already know what’s gonna happen. The balloon popping was kinda random and awkward. They didn’t allow music, and ran out of balloons.”
- An 8th grader
In my opinion, it was really uneventful. It’s the same thing every year, and we need to spice it up a bit.
“The balloon game is the same every year and it’s really cringey and embarrassing”
- An 8th grader
Here are some suggestions from the middle school:
- Make the spirit stick fair – or maybe there could be different ways to win the spirit week instead of just screaming.
- More music
- Make it longer
Maybe one idea for the Upper School students would be to ask for some feedback from students instead of just doing the same thing they did last year.