I have previously discussed on this blog about my shiny-glory days in high school, culminating in being voted as our high school's Class of 2007 "Most Popular Boy". For a brief time period during junior year, I dated our school's head cheerleader. It was a FUN (let me assure you, very fun... from the perspective of a 16 year old) experience, but didn't last very long. And at the end of the experience, I did learn a lot about relationships, why they usually don't work in high school and about members of the opposite sex. No offense female readers ;)
But one of the big things that I do remember from my experience with "Talia" is that cheerleaders have a ton of school spirit. From going to watch her practices to supporting her at our school's Friday night football games, I picked up a lot about what it really took to be a cheerleader - the head cheerleader - or, in other words, the school's "poster girl". This was high school.
My school right now, a middle school in the South Bronx, currently is in a friendly rivalry with a neighboring middle school. I would think it has something to do with gangs between the different neighborhoods, but that's not what the administration wants us to think. Our school administrators are also at it -from competing about basketball scores to NYS scores to which school has the best teachers -the rivalry between adults would seem intense. The students have also picked up on this, and have lately been hard at work brainstorming ways to beat this school (as opposed to, say, doing their homework...).
Yesterday, I suggested to them: "You know guys, why not beat MS *** by showing them that you guys are better at math?". This was meant to be a joke, more or less, but my 8th graders really took that message to heart: agreeing and working twice as hard as they usually do in an effort to outperform this class.
When I got home, I made a call to a teacher at this school and laid out the grounds for this "competition", He was thrilled! Clearly, this is a very unexpected occurrence in the school year. Miss Gonzalez and Mr. Gorbett have joined too.
Today, one of the girls in my class made a sign for me to hang up in my room:
"!SI, NOSOTROS PODEMOS! YES, WE CAN!"
My kids, just like Talia, have a lot of school spirit. Maybe they are more motivated because of gang affiliation (although the vast majority of students from my observation are not affiliated with the neighborhood gang). But most are motivated because they want to show someone they are BETTER. This is an opportunity for them to apply what I have been telling them all along.
Maybe this should continue for the entire year? I would LOVE to see my kids like this for the rest of the school year.
May the best middle school win.
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