School spirit is the sense of identity and community shared by members of an

educational institution An educational institution is a place where people of different ages gain an education, including preschools, childcare, primary-elementary schools, secondary-high schools, and universities. They provide a large variety of learning environments a ...

. School administrators may wish to foster school spirit with the goal of creating a sense of community within the student population, mitigating feelings of student detachment and anonymity. School spirit is often expressed by cheering on school affiliated sports teams, clubs, or individual students in extracurricular activities. It is said to correlate with higher self esteem and greater school performance. The term itself seems to be most common within the United States, where it manifests as "spirit week" events, during which members of a school are encouraged to display school spirit by wearing

school colors School colors, also known as university colors or college colors, are the colors chosen by a school, academy, college, university or institute as part of its brand identity, used on building signage, web pages, branded apparel, and the uniforms ...

, attending athletic events, or verbally in the form of chants or songs.

By country

In the United States, schools may attempt to bolster school identity by holding pep rallies, sometimes in connection with school sports events, or via

JROTC The Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) is a Federal government of the United States, federal program sponsored by the United States Armed Forces in high schools and also in some middle schools across the United States and at US mil ...

cheerleaders Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense physical activity. It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to ent ...

and

marching band A marching band is a group of instrumental musicians who play while marching. Historically they were used in armed forces and many marching bands remain military bands. Others are still associated with military units or emulate a military sty ...

s/ pep bands. Some schools may also hold "spirit weeks," in which students are encouraged to dress to match a certain theme to show school unity and spirit. Depending on the school, spirit weeks may occur the week of

homecoming Homecoming is the tradition of welcoming back alumni or other former members of an organization to celebrate the organization's existence. It is a tradition in many high schools, colleges, and churches in the United States and Canada. United St ...

, and end with a pep rally for the school. However, spirit weeks and school spirit, more broadly, are not limited to American high schools. Students within the United States are typically encouraged to have pride in their school and, in turn, themselves, from as early as

pre-school A preschool (sometimes spelled as pre school or pre-school), also known as nursery school, pre-primary school, play school, is an educational establishment or learning space Learning space or learning setting refers to a physical s ...

. A common critique of school spirit is that too many days of events can overburden young students' schedules.

References

* Education in the United States Spirit, school {{US-edu-stub

By country

See also

References