Monday, December 28, 2009
Why don't the incentive guys have spirit?
Whether people participate in spirit week depends on their interpretation of “spirit”. People have false sense of information and say that spirit week demonstrates Palmer spirit, and more importantly, Palmer pride; but how does wearing pyjamas to school or bringing bananas shows other outsiders that you are from Palmer? The intention of spirit week is to add more color to a normal-day school live. For those who participate in spirit weeks, it provides them with more excitement. I belong to the larger group of people whom do not participate in spirit week. Why I do not participate is due to a combination of multiple reasons. I believe spirit week is too childish. That is just my opinion, but I can say that the majority of the non-participants will have the same idea. Whether or not to participate in spirit week also depends on the environment and social circles, and peer pressure plays a crucial role as well. In my case, participating in a spirit day will make me look out of place. I seriously cannot imagine myself dressed in pyjamas in school, nor will I expect any of the boys in incentive. Now talking about incentive, I observed that incentive guys are extremely not involving in any school activities. Many of us might want to participate from time to time, but that is against the “tradition” of our gr10 incentive class, thus resulting in being afraid to be out of place. This is why nobody dared to start it off. If one day a few of us (incentive boys) agreed to take a step away from tradition, I can predict a chain reaction from the rest.
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Actually I don't think that it has anything to do with tradition, but more of either the fact that many of us are shy or the fact that some of us think that Spirit Week is below us
ReplyDeleteYou think spirit week is childish (or below you, so to speak), do you? A lot of the students in incentive (myself in some ways included) seem to have grown up a little too fast. Why be an old man at the age of fifteen? Now I'm not suggesting that we all wear our pyjamas to school, which is one spirit week activity I share your sentiments on, but I am suggesting that we all live a little more. A lot of the incentive students, the girls included, seem just a little high-strung.
ReplyDeleteThis tradition does not exist! It is mere psychology that is fostered by the individual's environment of learning and communication.
ReplyDeleteIt is acceptable to be childish from time to time and sometimes, such practices can be rewarding and lead to success.
You make being childish sound cool and calculated. And in a way, I think Oliver is right about you guys and "tradition" although I would refer to the concept not as tradition but as group mentality and mindset.
ReplyDeleteFirst, let me just state the obvious and say that if we just let go of our self conscious thoughts of standing out in our social circles, life would be a whole lot easier. This, though, is probably one of the hardest tasks for an adolescent teenager at our age and in our time era to do. Indeed, I myself have troubles doing this (yes, you could say that I am slightly hypocritical). But let me bade you to think back to when we first started the poetry unit in class. When Ms Barley told us that poetry is about how you feel about something, not how you think of it. Remember that discussion we had in class (There was something about putting down a dog...)? This can be applied to life in general and our social circles we have in school. It may be childish if you apply your thought to it, but, depending on the person, it could be the most amusing and fun thing in the world if you just let yourself feel the way you would naturally about it. So yeah... I guess what I'm trying to say is that (with this ridiculously long comment; sorry you guys!) it would be nice to see some incentive guys out there making a splash with some funky pajamas or something. Pajamas might not be the best way to show spirit, but hey, what's there to think about? You can come to school in comfy pjs! :D
ReplyDeleteSome of us just might have better things to do with our time. If I'm passing by with nothing to do and there's candy i occasionally participate in spirit week. Very occasionally.
ReplyDeleteNote to the student council members... if you want the I10 guys involved, involve candy first.
ReplyDeletetrying to get incentive 10 guys to join is just a waste of effort, thats a fact, not just my opinion
ReplyDeleteI think that that's the case with most guys who aren't popular with the girls, or on the basketball team or soccer teams. I don't see how candy can get us anywhere. You shouldn't give out prizes to people who get involved with spirit week, it's supposed to be about feeling good on the inside.
ReplyDeleteConcise, concrete, clarity;
ReplyDelete-.Brevity and buoyancy
----- Accuracy
The pyramid of communication.
I can really relate to what you said in your post. I think it was really insightful about how peer pressure and social circles affecting why the Incentive guys not participating in spirit weeks. I am a girl, and I have even thought about how foolish I would look wearing pajamas at school. :P However, I do participate in spirit weeks time to time. I don't know what it is, and don't mean offense by this, but I see how the Incentive guys seem to not want to get involved with things outside of their comfort zones of academia and the opinions of the clique. But I was really surprised by you saying that some Incentive guys do want to participate in these sorts of things. Well, why don't you guys break the cycle? You can be the exceptions to the Incentive 10 "tradition"? Sure you may think you look childish, but I know a lot of people who will be surprised, happy, and very impressed that you guys actually broke out of this preconceived notion that you guys don't like to get involved. It doesn't have to be spirit week, it could be anything new and somewhat daunting thing that you have wanted to try. Something really fun could come out of it. Do you really want to look back 20 years from now and not have any fond memories of these sorts of things and wished you had broken the cycle. Anyway, to sum it up, wow Oliver, you are really insightful, but who would have thought you would be about spirit week? :)
ReplyDeleteP.S.-About one point in your post, about how spirit weeks are supposed to add colour to our lives, how so you figure so? I mean, most people who have any type of "spirit" so to speak are joyful, but you don't see them randomly dressing up in different themes on the street for a week. Also, I agree about what you said about how would people outside know we have Palmer school spirit by dressing up in pajamas. It's kinda odd, huh?
Please don't distinctively split apart "Incentive guys" and "Incentive girls." There are many Incentive guys who DO choose to participate in Spirit Week.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it is your decision whether or not to participate in Spirit Week, but I personally think "childish" wouldn't be the right word to describe it. As Helen said, maybe you guys chose to "grow up" a little faster than the others, but that doesn't make the rest of us childish. Also, those of us who do participate in spirit week might be childish in your opinion -- but that doesn't make us any less capable of doing anything, so I don't see why "childishness" (is that a word?) should be a legitimate reason for not participating.
In people, there are many different types of personalities. The "Incentive guys" who DO participate do not have the personalities described by Oliver.
ReplyDeleteThen he shouldn't use "Incentive guys" to represent all of the people who do have qualities he described, because you guys aren't the ONLY Incentive guys.
ReplyDeleteThose are usually the guys who have lives. Remember that. It's an important distinction.
ReplyDeleteFirst law of thermodynamics:
ReplyDelete2.Energy can only be transfered from an area of higher concentration to an area of lower concentration aka: Entropy inside an insulated space varies directly with energy difference.
Simply put, we can all be average or some of us can be "spiritful."
Oh yeah, in French you can not say Je suis unique without letting others think that you are mentally stretched...Je suis enfant unique is the best way...
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ReplyDeleteHonestly speaking, I would have worn pajamas to school if ever feel like doing so. However, there are 3 reasons why it will not be practical:
ReplyDelete1. No room in locker for other normal clothing(It is fine wearing pajamas in school, but who on Earth wears them when walking home?!)
2. I forget stuff( short and simple)
3. Art(I dont want to bring the revolting smell of acrylic paint or paper mache glue to sleep.)
And unfortunately...I need to add in one more just in case...I built a rail gun for science fair and I don't want to have an electrifying experience.
Of course, most of you will consider these list of grievances above are absoluted excuses, but given my reckless nature, I will have to disagree with you.