Spirited

To mark the last week of the month, we are having a Black History Spirit Week here at school. Initially, I was excited when I heard about it; mostly because the last couple of events, Secret Spirit Week and Kindness Spirit Week, have been fun. But when the list of days came out last Friday, I was at a bit of a loss.

As a person who is white, I'm unsure how to participate appropriately in some of the activities. For example, today was Dress Like a Black Activist day and tomorrow is Dress Like a Black Icon of Art. It's unclear to me how I could do that without cultural appropriation. Wednesday is wear HBCU gear, and so I ordered a Howard t-shirt for Heidi and a Spellman shirt for myself, but Thursday is wear African Garb, and I'll be sitting that one out. Friday takes the colors of African Unity and distributes them among our community: teachers wear gold, 6th grade, red, 7th grade black, and 8th grade green. That one, I can do.

Please understand; I am not complaining. In fact, I think it's good for me to be uncomfortable. Who knows how many other Spirit Week activities we've had in the past have been inaccessible or unfathomable to others, students and staff alike? 

Only So Much Spirit

Secret Spirit Week the subject line read, and the email contained details about staff dress each day. But don't tell the students! the message ended. 

The idea was a novel one to me, something that we have never done in the many years I've been teaching at this school, and all but one of the themes were easy for me to get behind: Monday dress in school spirit wear, Tuesday wear all black, Wednesday wear a hoodie, Thursday wear plaid flannel, Friday dress for the prom.

It was fun to see so many of my colleagues dressed alike all week, too, although as Heidi predicted, none of the kids even noticed. Today at the basketball game, as we stood on the sidelines in our plaid flannel shirts, one of the other English teachers stopped to chat on her way out. "You know what I noticed?" she said.

I raised my eyebrows expectantly.

"We are all dressed like you!"

"And we have been all week!" I agreed. 

"That ends tomorrow though," I told her.

"No prom for you?" she laughed. "Well, I guess I expected so."