Twin day you wear a school t-shirt/sweatshirt and you are twins with half the school. Wow, you guys take all the fun out of it for kids.

Lol. After reading this post, I just realize thar I misunderstand some of those spirit days my kindergartener boy have from school. I dress my
boy with his favorite cartoon character print on it on "dress like your favorite book character". I dress my boy with soccer/basketball print on it on "team spirit day". I forgot to dress green on st patrick day but my boy told me there's a tiny green color on his sneaker. I thought twin day is for mainly twins, or girls to dress alike to wear tutu or hair accessories. I did not know that kids are supposed to dress like old like 100 years old. He does not even care about wearing tie day. He is like dressing whatever, and he does not pay attention to those dressing up days.

Lol, I am a foreigner and all ES/MS/HS I attended required us to dress uniforms. We never had any dress up day, except once a year picnic day that we could wear casual.

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s sad all the kids who “don’t want to participate in spirit day.” It’s meant to be fun! It breaks up the long year od drudgery. I get why a child wouldn’t participate every spirit day, but not at all? That seems sad to me - in need of further investigation.

A lot of kids are uncomfortable with activities that require them to "put themselves out there" and draw the eye. That's their personality. Crazy hair day is not fun for everyone. Most kids can't wear their actual PJs on pajama day, they are either inappropriate or too cold. Twin day causes friend drama. And so on.

I tried to be a good sport about it at first but there were SO MANY dress up days. The 100 days of school idea to dress "old" is what broke me. That is a straight-up Halloween costume you have to figure out in like February.

I'm pretty sure my DD picked up my distaste, which makes me sad. She might have been more willing if I were enthusiastic. But when I was a kid my school principal said we should "dress for the business of school" and that's how I still feel.

Anonymous wrote:PSA to teachers and parents in PTA- twin day excludes many children. Some kids don’t have a bestie. Some kids feel different, think they look different, have social anxiety, other issues that make it hard for them to connect and have many friends. I know a student who everyone thought had many friends and hid in the bathroom bawling on twin day. Everyone else had a partner but them. They had friends but no best friend. Poor thing still breaks my heart.

Agree with this. My daughter is quirky and was always the only singleton in a room full of twins. Twin day sucked.

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s sad all the kids who “don’t want to participate in spirit day.” It’s meant to be fun! It breaks up the long year od drudgery. I get why a child wouldn’t participate every spirit day, but not at all? That seems sad to me - in need of further investigation.

Hey head cheerleader and SGA president, math team coach here: Not everyone thinks that the stuff you find fun is fun, and not everyone thinks that the academic part of school is drudgery.

This kind of last minute stuff for school is one more reason Instacart is life-changing.

Anonymous wrote:FARM=Free and Reduced Meals, maybe the S is for Students. A high-FARMS school would be one with a higher % of students from families with low household income.

Oh, ok. Thanks for the explanation.

Our ES is a Title 1 with around 90% FARMS kids and they do tons of stuff like this. Tho I will say that teachers and staff generally really emphasize that it’s optional and that no one gets excluded or criticized for not participating. It’s billed as a way to build school spirit.

About half of the kids participate in these days but it doesn’t break down along class lines. While I don’t necessarily know who the FARMS kids are, I do know with confidence many of the kids who are not FARMS (because I’ve met their parents and know their employers/professions) and done participate and done don’t.

I personally agree with OP because there is already so much to think about and I do really hate trying to track down a special colored shirt or accessory on short notice. We don’t always do it, but if my kid seems enthusiastic about it I generally come up with something. And it is just one more thing on a long list.

FARM=Free and Reduced Meals, maybe the S is for Students. A high-FARMS school would be one with a higher % of students from families with low household income.

Can someone explain what is a FARMS school? I’ve never heard of it before.

Anonymous wrote:PSA to teachers and parents in PTA- twin day excludes many children. Some kids don’t have a bestie. Some kids feel different, think they look different, have social anxiety, other issues that make it hard for them to connect and have many friends. I know a student who everyone thought had many friends and hid in the bathroom bawling on twin day. Everyone else had a partner but them. They had friends but no best friend. Poor thing still breaks my heart.

Yes to all this. My kid takes time to make friends, but through her diligence and effort, has two friends in class. On twin day they dressed alike and didn’t include her. This was a horrible way for her to learn that they considered themselves best friends but NOT her. She was going to learn it, but this was such a stark and unnecessary way to do so. It didn’t facilitate their closeness to each other, which was always fine. It only highlighted for my kid that she is still an outsider.

It especially frustrated me because the school has a strict uniform code that is premised on helping the kids overcome differences and see each other as equals and friends. Except during spirit week, when apparently kids should be forced to daily confront the ways in which they are not equal, and make it obvious to everyone.

For my kid with various learning disabilities and other issues, spirit week and all these special dress up days are horrid. My DD is always a mess the entire week. I know she wants to badly to participate and be like the other kids, but the demands make her anxious and disregulated. Don’t even get me started on twin day which is just another reminder that she’s different.

PSA to teachers and parents in PTA- twin day excludes many children. Some kids don’t have a bestie. Some kids feel different, think they look different, have social anxiety, other issues that make it hard for them to connect and have many friends. I know a student who everyone thought had many friends and hid in the bathroom bawling on twin day. Everyone else had a partner but them. They had friends but no best friend. Poor thing still breaks my heart.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SGAs do this (student govt assoc), has nothing to do with bored housewives or PTAs. The KIDS pick the spirit day categories - one of the few things they CAN be in charge of.

Since when do elementary kids have student government?

Where are you? In Arlington we have student council in elementary.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SGAs do this (student govt assoc), has nothing to do with bored housewives or PTAs. The KIDS pick the spirit day categories - one of the few things they CAN be in charge of.

Since when do elementary kids have student government?

My elementary school had a student government back in the 90's.