Most would argue that school spirit isn’t important because having pride in your school doesn’t seem to have any relevance. But if you think about it from a different viewpoint you might just see how school spirit affects a lot of people and their lives. School spirit is a vital part of a community as a whole. 

What is school spirit like in our community?

I conducted a student survey about pride in our school and community here in Bourbon County.The question was, “Do you have school/ community pride (Bourbon County High School)?” The answer options were yes, no, and partially. 37.5% said yes, 21.7% said no, and 40.8% said partially. Not to my surprise, the majority said partially. This is most likely because most students want to have that pride and support our school, but they either don’t see why they should or they only take pride in certain parts of our school. However, 21.7% also said no this is still a big part of the school that doesn’t see why school pride is important and doesn’t feel our school deserves it. But if we’d all put in an effort to find that pride inside of us it would benefit us all. 

Why is school spirit important? 

I interviewed Abigail DeBord who is the Theme Chair of the BCHS Pep Club to see what she thought about school spirit. Abby agrees that school spirit is important for herself and the whole school, “I feel like it’s really important. It encourages all kinds of athletes to do better. It just makes them feel good when they feel supported like that and it’s fun you know, we only live once.” What Abby says here perfectly supports that school spirit is important. As you know, athletes are in control of whether our school wins or loses at games/competitions. Pressure can settle in very quickly and having classmates and friends have confidence in them and support them is a feeling that I’m sure means a great deal to them. To further prove this argument, I also interviewed the co-president of the Pep Club and senior football player, Clay Estes. I asked Clay why he thought school spirit was important and he replied, “It’s important because every time I’m playing football, and I look up in the stands and see our student section it makes me want to play harder.” Having that pride and positive energy affects our athletes, who are single-handedly holding the reputation of our school. Going further into that if we have that good attitude and build up each other then we are a better community as a whole.

But how does it affect all of the students?

You might not see just how it affects people other than the athletes, and how it affects a school as a whole. I interviewed assistant principal Justin Roe, who wants to bring in spirit coaches to teach students how to have a pep rally. I asked him why he thought school spirit was important and he replied, “School spirit is one of those things where it starts to draw our kids in. Makes them take a little bit of ownership and pride in their school. When those things kind of roll over into the classroom, the way they treat their hallways, treat their campus, the bathrooms, how they treat each other, they start to become a team outside of just singular sports.” Roe really does highlight perfectly how school spirit affects us all, making it important. A school without spirit and pride in itself is not going to have students who treat the school property, teachers, and other students very well because they don’t see the school as something to be respected. Having pride in your school creates a huge difference that can affect everyone in your community.

School spirit is important to everyone and affects everyone. It affects our athletes, who carry the weight of our school name and affects how students treat our school and community which creates a sense of family that can benefit us all. If you’re one to complain about a school not being of good enough quality and not being deserving of pride because of it, think about how that could change if we’d only have the motivation to change how people feel about our school and more importantly our community. Even if you don’t go to Bourbon County High School, school spirit is important everywhere it affects our community meaning it affects our lives.