Poll: Pep rallies

[Dangit2019]

So this year, I learned that my school is making pep rallies mandatory on the basis that it is currently fitting only 2 grades (it's brand new) and can fit everyone in the gym for these early years.

Now, I'm not very fond of pep rallies, mainly because:

1. I'm not into high school sports

2. I'm also not into people forcing me to be excited.

I am glad that due to my being in the Audio/Video class, I got to spend the whole thing frantically filming the event rather than sitting around in the crowded stands. The whole thing did leave me curious on you guys' opinions of the damn things though.

So, does your high school (current or former) have mandatory pep rallies? Or pep rallies at all? If so, what is your outlook on them?

 

[Marter]

We had some. Basically, we went, watched teachers do embarrassing things, and then watched a basketball game. It was, admittedly, pretty dull, but mostly because our school had no school spirit. It was so bad that it was an in-joke among the students.

 

[game-lover]

When I give it some thought, I believe they were mostly mandatory.

But by the time I was in my second semester of junior year, I stopped going. I think it was because I was able to sort of just sneak away. Because I really disliked them.

I was never one to have much school spirit.

Edit: It helped though that the pep rallies were always at around the last half hour to hour of the school day. When it ended, everybody went home. So it was probably wouldn't have been a big issue when people didn't show up.

I bet a lot of the older students with cars went home early.

 

[piinyouri]

Had them frequently.
Was a free excuse to get out of class, so I never complained, despite not having much interest in sports.

 

[Berithil]

I was homeschooled, so my answer should be pretty obvious.

As for my opinion on them..... I think they sound stupid. If someones going to show school spirit, they'll do it without a pep rally. For those who don't want to show school spirit, you're just making them irritated.

 

[Ruedyn]

Dear god the headache, and in my school they have games where the students can humiliate themselves! People always volunteer me to play with three other confused people who also don't want to be there. I've just started taking refuge in the library reading.

Thank god they aren't mandatory at my school.

 

[Dangit2019]

I was homeschooled, so my answer should be pretty obvious.

As for my opinion on them..... I think they sound stupid. If someones going to show school spirit, they'll do it without a pep rally. For those who don't want to show school spirit, you're just making them irritated.

For the most part, you're right on the money. The football guys seem to enjoy the extra ego boost though.

 

[manic_depressive13]

What on earth is a pep rally? Guessing from your vague description and other responses I don't think we ever had anything of the sort.

 

[Dangit2019]

What on earth is a pep rally? Guessing from your vague description and other responses I don't think we ever had anything of the sort.

Everybody piles into the gym and gets a bunch of pep talks about "school spirit" on the day of a big sports game. This is usually accompanied by some sort of craAAazy embarrassing game with the teachers, and a show from the cheerleaders.

If you still don't follow, there's this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pep_rally

 

[game-lover]

My school had it held in the auditorium as opposed to the gym.

We had no games that I recall but the cheerleader show was there.

 

[Kae]

Never even heard of those things before, after reading what it was I must say that I also haven't seen one before.

But anyway I was never the social kind of guy, in fact I always hated events, I was always the typical guy that's just sitting there on a corner by himself, since I never had any friends I never really had anything to do in those events, I also never participated in whatever thing they were holding.

 

[Screamarie]

They were mandatory and I hated it. I actually had anxiety issues being around people so I hated being shoved into those stands with people I didn't like. Not to mention I didn't give a damn about sports, the kids on the sports teams, and honestly it pissed me off that there was all this pomp and circumstance for the male team sports, but hardly any recognition of the girls team sports. Plus, they treated these kids like they were heroes, so I was always like "well where the hell is the party for the academic students which is what you're supposed to be focusing on?"

At the time I lived just down the street from the high school so, in one of the very few open acts of defiance of my teachers, I played hookey. I would just head outside with the crowds and when everyone went right towards the gym, I headed left.

 

[manic_depressive13]

Everybody piles into the gym and gets a bunch of pep talks about "school spirit" on the day of a big sports game. This is usually accompanied by some sort of craAAazy embarrassing game with the teachers, and a show from the cheerleaders.

If you still don't follow, there's this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pep_rally

Nope, definitely never had one. I doubt anything like that exists outside America. Australians care a lot about sport as well but for us school was mostly about, well, schooling.

 

[King of Asgaard]

Here in Malta, or at least the school I go to, we don't have pep rallies.
Instead we have what we call sports days. Every year, all the years of students (for example, all the sixth formers/twelfth grades) must take part in a series of sports activities.
Personally, I hate it with a passion, because I'm not particularly sporty and because it's mandatory.

 

[Shock and Awe]

My Freshman year they had them for every football game. To be honest I liked them, but then again I was a freshman and it was all new and shiny to me. By second semester they were boring and by sophomore year the were insufferable. I haven't been to once since. I've either skipped or came up with a lame excuse to leave school early. Its to loud, to many people I dislike, and to much me not giving a flying fuck what the football team does. I cannot wait for college.

 

[Humble Grapefruit]

We had some. Basically, we went, watched teachers do embarrassing things, and then watched a basketball game. It was, admittedly, pretty dull, but mostly because our school had no school spirit. It was so bad that it was an in-joke among the students.

Almost exactly how mine was. Teachers would yell things like, "Come on guys cheer them on!" and you would get three or four people who would do so, while everyone else just talked.

 

[Goofguy]

Pep rallies, whoa. Those take me back... to a time I don't care to remember. My high school had them and to a certain degree, they were popular. Being an introverted and non-peppy kind of guy, I hated them. If I remember correctly, they were mandatory. Although I went very much begrudgingly.

 

[RatRace123]

Mandatory, didn't really care much either way.
We usually had them during the last hour or so of our last class so we didn't really miss out on anything, teachers prepared accordingly.

It was a more interesting end to the day than sitting waiting for the bell though, so at least there's that.

 

[Chrono212]

As someone who comes from an island, what's a Pep rally?

My two cents is that anything mandatory makes those in it resent it.

But;

making it voluntary risks it falling apart from lack of interest.

 

[Dags90]

Mandatory, didn't really care much either way.
We usually had them during the last hour or so of our last class so we didn't really miss out on anything, teachers prepared accordingly.

It was a more interesting end to the day than sitting waiting for the bell though, so at least there's that.

I'm guessing your school did a block schedule? At my school the classes were about 45 minutes long. So a half hour pep rally once a month was essentially no lesson once a month.

They were mandatory, but I skipped out of a few of them by sneaking out. My school was stupidly easy to sneak out of; so many doors and courtyards.