Looking through old yearbooks, you can find memories and traditions of the past. The traditions that we used to do brought community connections and involvement to our youth and our town. As some of these traditions have faded into the past, it seems as though so has some of the school and town spirit and the connections with the community.
2011 WHS graduate, Megan Daleske, teaches Title 1 Reading and Math in middle school. Daleske has two kids Axen and Palmer and is married to Charlie Daleske, 2006 WHS graduate, who is the middle and high school Wrestling coach.
“I think school spirit is higher in some ways, like having organized dress ups for home games and getting the word out on social media, but also lower in the fact that students are not as involved as they used to be,” she said.
Some fun traditions that we used to do were, powderpuff, volley flip, school-sponsored pep club, pep bus, and having a couch in the end zone with seats raffled off during football games. We do not do any of these activities anymore and it’s sad. The upcoming and present classes deserve to be involved in the same things past classes were. Sports should not be the only extracurricular activities provided to students. They should be able to participate in different ways, whether that is being in pep club or actually being on the team.
To me, community means one. It means we are all united and connected. We come together in good and bad times. We still do have a good, united community, but we definitely are not as connected as we used to be.
Pep Club used to be a big thing, but I feel that this year not many people are coming to games and if they are, there are not many people constantly cheering. If you are going to come to the games, at least try to stand up and be positive.
The reason I think that these traditions should be brought back is because we are continuously changing things around. The more school activities we have, the more involved we are.
2020 WHS graduate, Kya Shepker, is still living in Warsaw and is teaching middle school life skills. Shepker was the pitcher for the softball team her senior year and had committed to play softball at Evangel University.
“We preach tradition in our vision statement but we continuously change things around. To me; a tradition is something we should build and stick with. Something that is not subject to change and everyone can look forward to,” said Shepker.
In past years, a lot of the students were involved in something. I think that students just wanted to be included in the school and the town and back then they had more activities and opportunities to be involved with their community. Most people think the more events and/or activities we have the less students will get in trouble because they want to be able to participate. There is no better way to find out then to bring these activities back.
It seems as if our school spirit has dropped so much the past few years, I just don’t feel like kids really care anymore about supporting their community and their classmates.
According to July 2022 research from the National Center for Education Statistics, schools have reported the pandemic negatively affecting student behavior and school attendance. “School leaders were asked about student chronic absenteeism—defined as those missing at least 10 percent of the school year. School leaders reported increased student absenteeism as a COVID-19-related problem consistently across a wide range of school types, including in elementary schools (74 percent), schools with lower student poverty rates (72 percent), and rural schools (70 percent).”
This student disconnect from school needs to be addressed and perhaps a return of some of the traditions of the past is a way to get back to the feeling of belonging that school activities can provide.
