By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
I vowed weeks ago I would be more prepared for my second Spirit Night.
I brought short pants to work, but, ultimately, decided the high school gym wasn’t going to be the oven I encountered last year.
I planned on buying earplugs, but settled for stuffing tissue. Within minutes, however, one ear had to be unplugged so I could communicate with people by yelling into their ear and them responding into mine.
When I got home, I felt a little something wedged in my ear. I removed a bit of that forgotten tissue paper.
I may have been more prepared, mentally, but, nevertheless, I was still struck with what I saw — and heard, at ear-ringing decibels — Friday night.
Impressed with the class chants that included shout-outs — quite literally — for seniors. Impressed with soon-to-be-graduates giving up their vocal chords for the sophomores and the juniors allying with the freshmen.
Impressed with the image of one teacher standing aghast, hands to her face, as the freshmen bested the seniors in the tug-of-war.
Impressed “USA, USA” was a popular yell, and no one laughed at occasional ineptitude of any youngster in any skill game.
It struck me as a New Games philosophy. Play hard. Have fun. No one gets hurt.
Even the staff got into the act.
”They teachers have been threatening all year to do the Harlem Style,” Athletic Director Michael Fanizzi said to me.
And, by golly, they did.
I have since learned Spirit Night is not a be-all-and-end-all event, but a culmination of a year of activities that binds kids into classes, breaks down cliques and fosters camaraderie, teamwork, planning and discipline.
Spirit Year embraces such things as food clothing drives and lunchtime activities — even one that involves wrapping kids like mummies, I’m told.
The year culminates the first week in May. Friday, students viewed each of the class videos on classroom TVs. Each class was brought into the auditorium to practice their chant for that night. Class theme displays popped up in the Commons, playing on murals painted in hallways.
The murals, I’m told, stay up for the four years of a student’s experience at the high school. That’s 16 murals. That’s a lot of hall space, and a lot of memories.
So, if you think about it, every student has a talent that can be plugged in somewhere — filmmaking, art, organizing, being thrown high into the air or hamming it up enough to be costumed as an astronaut for the senior class grand dash into the gym at precisely 7 p.m.
So while some kids can duck walk, throw a hula hoop, anchor a tug-of-war team or be gymnastic enough to bounce across the gym floor, others can paint, film, write and take on a whole range of challenges.
Everybody gets to whoop it, drum the bleachers with their hands and, generally, go a little crazy.
It shouldn’t go without saying that most of spirit activities are student-devised, planned and executed. That’s no small feat. That’s a learning experience you cannot replicate in a classroom.
”I can guarantee you that Friday about midnight, there were discussions by the grades that are returning what their themes should be next year,” said Principal Karen Bingert.
So, to recap, Spirit Night culminates Spirit Year in which students brainstorm and self-organize to do good things, build class camaraderie and school spirit, respect other grades, compete and collaborate — all while burning off some steam and having fun.
”It’s my favorite night of the year,” Ms. Bingert said a few days later, almost wistfully.
