It’s a similar old pattern. The student council accounts post the schedule on social media: Mondays for sports jerseys, throwback outfits on Thursdays, and then class colors on Friday. Yet, when you show up for school, it might as well be any other week. A handful of students choose to participate, but they are the odds ones out. What we are talking about is Spirit Week, a relic of the past that student government leaders arrange simply to satisfy tradition and that most students could not be less interested in participating in. In its current form, Spirit Week is an unenjoyable flop, each variation with less of that intended “spirit” than the last. How did we get here (and why are our cell phones to blame)?
Spirit Week is simply not cool anymore, and a lot of that comes down to the little information/dopamine injectors that students carry around with them everywhere they go (even if the governor would prefer they didn’t): cell phones. With a cell phone in your pocket, there’s simply no need for the real togetherness that this school-wide event is trying to create. Why worry about feeling part of your Nyack High School community when you can be part of a Subreddit, or Discord server, or Snapchat group? There have always been different cliques and subgroups in high school, not everyone is friends with everyone and that’s ok, but there was more of a sense of community. Students were brought together by what they had in common, the school they attend. This was the group of people you saw everyday, but that has all changed. Location is not as limiting a factor as it once was, and now students don’t do the majority of their social interaction in the cafeteria or hallway (where they would only be with Nyack students), but rather on the internet, where they can interact with anyone in the world. This shift in how teens build community has many benefits, but ultimately today we’re focusing on our hallowed tradition of Spirit Week, and the effect this change has had on it has been anything but beneficial.
The evolution of cell phone culture has discouraged Spirit Week participation in another way too, by heightening the need for students to act “cool” or, as the teens of today might say, “nonchalant” at all times. When you could previously do something or act in a certain way with nothing but the word of mouth to carry your exploits to the next room, now everywhere is instantaneously connected. Gossip spreads like wildfire on social media, and no one is safe from the silent click of an iPhone camera. Generally, high school students are hesitant to do anything “out of the norm” for fear of it making it into the wrong group chat or being posted on the wrong story. They know that “big brother” is watching, to borrow an Orwellian phrase, but instead of the Ingsoc rulers of Oceania, it is their own classmates and friends whom they are worried about. The prospect of lugging around a recycling bin to carry all your papers on “No Backpacks Day”, or donning a Hawaiian shirt, lei, and flip flops for “Tropical Tuesday" is simply not that attractive to the high school students of today.
It seems that in its current form, Spirit Week is destined to continue its steady slide further into hopeless irrelevancy. The biggest participants are consistently teachers, and though staff participation is not inherently bad, it shows the disconnect between this tradition and the generation it is actually meant to galvanize. Ultimately, Spirit Week is an old idea that is most enjoyed by the older members of our school community. In theory, the student body representatives are responsible for organizing and promoting any school spirit events, yet they have given us Spirit Week after Spirit Week, sometimes switching out a certain theme for another, but always following the same blueprint. Why do they keep churning them out? Well, it is certainly not a reflection of their success or popularity. Most student body reps don’t even participate in the very events that they organized. No, this lame charade that we call Spirit Week is kept up because of the sheer convenience of it. It has been done for years, so why stop now? Why break the status quo? It is an easy way to check off a box, picking a few daily themes and then moving on to the next item on the agenda.
Spirit Week exists to bring people together. It’s meant for students to take themselves a bit less seriously for a few days and do something as a whole Nyack community. The way we have lambasted it here, you probably don’t believe us, but we are truly sad about where we have come to. In 2026, Spirit Week is just not (at all!) an effective agent of community. It isn’t working; we need something new and a bit more 2020s. Nothing breeds school spirit more than Nyack sports, and by connecting spirit events with sports games we can build back that culture of togetherness. Every sport has a senior game, but why stop there? Homecoming shouldn’t be restricted to just football, but a whole week of primetime games with different themes for each, all leading up to the big football game. “Friday Night Lights,” apart from being the name of a five season teen sports drama on television, refers to the idea of high school football games played on Friday nights under the floodlights, a big community event. We have a decent amount of hype for our fall football games, but that’s only a handful of games a year; let’s carry the energy to other sports. Students would be a lot more likely to attend sports games held in the evening, like football, rather than the 4 o’clock timeframe when they are occupied by their own practices. Every Friday evening should showcase a different sport with a student section and a certain theme. That theme could carry over into school for the day, getting students ready for the game that follows. And why stop at sports? We could also celebrate other activities that highlight the talents of our student body. This is just a rough idea, but anything is worth trying to replace the failed relic of Spirit Week.
When it comes down to it, the group that best knows what the high school students of today want are… well… the high school students of today! That being said, it’s up to you to shake off the pathetic sham that is Spirit Week and find what comes next. Think hard and tell your student body reps your ideas (or just put them on social media, everyone will see them eventually).
Spectrum welcomes your comments about Spirit Week. Send your ideas to ian.bowen@nyackschools.org or justin.morales@nyackschools.org.