Opinion: Homecoming assembly shows that school must discuss improving homecoming traditions
The homecoming assembly glorifies the court over the rest of the students. Graphic by Miranda Li.
On Tuesday, October 6, ASB hosted the annual homecoming assembly. ASB modified this year’s assembly to be more inclusive to the student body in a direct effort to increase class spirit and to address concerns with homecoming court elitism. While ASB’s efforts are commendable, the assembly should be taken as one of many steps to revise homecoming traditions and raise school spirit.
In the assembly, ASB added class competitions that included students not on homecoming court. Along with the traditional lineup of homecoming couple skits, announcements and performances from the dance and cheerleading teams, new competitions included a selfie game in which representatives took a selfie with their respective classes in the least amount of time and a statue game in which students raced to form California-themed positions with a partner.
While entertaining, these competitions were at times disorganized and overly-drawn out. Many students were confused about competition objectives, which lessened audience enthusiasm. However, this was the first year ASB integrated the competitions. ASB should be applauded for initiating this improvement but should look toward logistical improvements for future homecoming assemblies.
Although ASB shortened homecoming skits and homecoming couple announcements to accommodate class competitions, the homecoming couple activities during the assembly continued to glorify couples and did little to redirect focus to the student body. While a celebration of the homecoming court is a valued tradition, ASB should evolve the couples’ activities to coincide with the ideals of school spirit and inclusivity that class competitions strived to achieve this year.
Court activities also contradict school-wide efforts to raise spirit. Although comical, skits are an outdated tradition, and couple announcements are both awkward for the couples and the student body listening. These court-centric activities make it difficult for students outside of court to get involved. Homecoming court traditions are outdated and counter the effect of ASB’s addition of class-centric competitions.
On a grander scale, homecoming traditions go against the values of a modern and forward-thinking school and should no longer be honored for the sake of preserving a tradition. Homecoming court should be eradicated completely and replaced with a new system in which homecoming week is centered around class competition. After all, events like homecoming are great opportunities for the school to band together in celebration of the entire student body rather than 20 members of the senior class that comprise homecoming court. Palo Alto High School has implemented a similar system because of corroborating sentiments on homecoming court.
However, multiple solutions exist, and there is more to be done by the entire community regarding raising school spirit and improving future homecoming assemblies. Genuine and active conversation instigated by ASB’s attempts this year has begun the long process needed to fully address these issues.
Ultimately, revising homecoming tradition should not solely fall on ASB’s shoulders. All members of the school must contribute to this process by initiating conversations about school spirit and homecoming activities and verbalizing their perspectives to make progressive revisions on spirit-stifling traditions. Installing change is beyond the scope of any one student group on campus — only through community-wide concern and discussion about the outdated exclusivity of homecoming court can improvements begin. Now is the time for everyone to talk about these issues, so let’s talk.
Janice | Sep 22, 2016 at 1:26 pm
Having popularity contests for teens in their school environment is archaic. All it does is serve to make the 95% of the students that don’t get to wear a coveted crown feel like they are crap. People who stand up for it must have made their court or their kid must have made it- so they think it’s the bomb. And the girls voted in are 90% cheerleaders or girls that the boys find attractive or that date boys. There are amazing girls in high school that do other sports and academics. 1950s tradition that should be eradicated.
Anonyms | Oct 9, 2015 at 1:43 am
In all honesty we can’t get mad at the homecoming court. They deserve to be recognize for everything they have achieved. The person who wrote this article clearly sounds a little jealous which is why we can’t have good things in life due to people’s jealousy. I would suggest that the writer should calm down. This is the Homecoming assembly not the class spirit assembly. We still have other assemblies for students to participate in class competitions. However, cutting down 15 minutes to incorporate class competitions was very kind of the court members to agree on. I think the writer who wrote this article is a little jealous because they wanted more attention. Let me just say you’re wrong to the person who wrote this article.
Mrs. Woolfolk | Oct 7, 2015 at 11:02 pm
Thank you for sharing Talon’s and your thoughts, Alice. Always good to get feedback from groups. However, please correct your information referring to the assemblies on Tuesday. Specifically, skits and couple intros were cut down by over 15 minutes, compared to last year’s assembies. These recovered 15+ minutes were transferred to class- and sport-focused games. There was no reduction in time from cheer or dance performances to allow for games, for clarification.
ASB loves to add new ideas and blend them with time-honored traditions! Homecoming will surely continue to morph in years to come to reflect the interests of our community.
Callan Garber | Oct 7, 2015 at 10:07 pm
This was an interesting read for me. As a self-proclaimed homecoming enthusiast, I was shocked to see that the homecoming court assembly can be seen as “dedicated to a borderline glorification of homecoming court.” This seems harsh to me. Court is something that is voted on by the school’s seniors, so obviously “popularity” is factoring into this. But, you can’t have homecoming without having a “popularity contest.” If you wanted to have a tradition that didn’t put the most visible and active students at the forefront, you wouldn’t have a homecoming court. Personally, I love the skits. I have loved the skits since my freshman year, and I have never once wanted to participate in them. There’s something familiar to them– I’m reminded of the days when I would throw myself onto the floor to get a few giggles from spectators during my Girl Scout years. To me, it’s a heartwarming tradition.
I wanted to address specifically the comment on the “glorification” of the homecoming court. Why do you see it this way? As someone with family in the South, I generally see our homecoming as fairly toned down. Once we announce the king and queen, the school generally forgets about it, and we move on with our lives. At other schools, the pictures are framed, they’re invited to meet the town mayor, their names are remembered years after. Also, is there something wrong with recognizing students who have been examples of active, positive participants on campus? Sure, some fall through the cracks and you’re left to wonder why a certain person is representing the school, but for the most part (from my perspective at least), the homecoming court members are nice people who are both academically successful, and friendly.
I do agree with the statement on the couple announcements. Those are God awful and need to stop immediately.
Keep up the amazing reporting Talon!
Best,
Callan Garber, Senior
ur mom | Oct 7, 2015 at 9:54 pm
I don’t think this is true. Why shouldn’t the homecoming court be glorified?? A HUGE part of homecoming is the homecoming court, and every class will eventually get their time to shine. Without the court homecoming is just another dance. I’d argue that the court is rigged, and not everyone who was selected by the students is on court, merely because the staff doesn’t want the homecoming court to be a popularity contest. That’s dumb. Let the students choose who they want on court instead of manipulating the results. I agree that getting other students involved helps with some school spirit, but I disagree that the court shouldn’t be glorified. These are some of the nicest, smartest, most successful people on campus, why shouldn’t they get the recognition they deserve.