Blog #387: My Thoughts on School Spirit Week as a Former Special Education Student (Part 1)

It’s the week of Thanksgiving and for a lot of schools, that means its school spirit week. This is the time of year where students and teachers show their overall school spirit through a variety of activities and events. You might say this is one of those times where the cat is let out of the bag for an entirely good reason.

But while some look forward to spirit week, there are others who detest, particularly for those who are sensory friendly and/or neurodivergent. I should know, because I went through spirit week for the last 7 years of my educational journey. Each and every time that spirit week came around, I would always find myself dreading it on account that all the ingredients would be in place. The idea that people would be loud and rowdy, dress in ways that I would not otherwise recognize and be gathered in confining pep rallies was enough to drive up my anxiety a couple of notches.

Now that isn’t to say that I tried to avoid all the activities. I would mask my emotions and pretend like I was part of the action, excited to show my spirit when I really was not interested whatsoever. That way, I wouldn’t be judged as a poor sport to my fellow peers.

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Then there was the matter of teachers and administrators trying to maintain order amongst the students. Seeing teachers and administrators getting tough on students also further added my stress levels to a new level, particularly when I was in middle school. This was especially where even before spirit week when my class was threatened to be exclude because we were talking at lunch announcements. All in all, there would just be two levels of anxiety trying to compete for supremacy of my mind during those times.

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Think of it as like Godzilla vs. King Kong if you will. You have Godzilla representing the students who are excited for Spirit Week and don’t care if they are rowdy and then you have King Kong representing the teachers who are not afraid to lay down the law a couple of notches. When both of these forces fight each other, overstimulation was evident.

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In fact, one of the reasons why I created my presentation, “School Assemblies and Autism,” is to make schools aware that there are alternatives for sensory friendly/neurodiverse students to be part of the school activities. There are ways for neurodiverse students to mark their own school spirit, but in their own environment and on their own speed. I will cover some of the tips and tricks in the next blog!!

“School Assemblies and Neurodiversity”

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Catch you all later!!