In our school handbook it states, “students, faculty, and administration share a responsibility to develop and
maintain a climate within the school that is conducive to learning and good citizenship,” although, most of us can
agree there is a lack of school spirit that contributes towards keeping the climate conducive to learning and good citizenship. According to nfhs.org, high school students with school spirit perform better academically and are
more engaged in social and civic manners, so why do we hesitate to improve our school spirit? Kaleb Rush, one of the P-block and gang green leaders, offers simple fixes to improve our school spirit, “I believe that there should be school spirit days monthly. Along with these school spirit days there would be different games/activities that could be going on around the school.” With just a little more focus on spirit and student involvement, students could have a more memorable time during their high school years.

This year, there were a few hiccups that set our school spirit back. For example, the pep rally was taken away. Instead of simply taking it away, changes could have been made to make it better. Another example is how there were spirit days the week of homecoming and it was not made a priority to make students aware of them, which in reverse, could have made the week more exciting. Mrs. Saylor is avid for school spirit, staying involved and attending many school events. She agrees that there wasn’t enough publicizing and she only noticed signs posted at the cafeteria and in the administration office.

A piece of advice from Mrs. Saylor, would be putting announcements on the daily ramble. Furthermore, a suggestion that I have thrown around, is having a group of well- liked and well-known students participate in all the spirits so that way, they can advertise it to their friends. The more students who do it, the more will follow.

It’s obvious our school spirit isn’t up to par. It takes planning, administration and students to fix this. When Speaking to Mrs. Saylor she was unsure of any events or activities being planned for the rest of the year and that stands out as a red flag. “Making students experience more enjoyable starts with being proud of the school you belong to,” says Mr. Plawa, head of the ski and board club, teacher and former North Penn student. He reminisced on being proud to be at North Penn, along with the rest of his peers. Students at Pennridge should feel the same. Let’s make Pennridge great again!