Thursday, January 20, 2011

School Mascots And What They Mean

By Adriana Noton


Mascots are commonly used to promote school spirit. These symbols and images give students an image to relate to when they think of their school and their teams. Mascots are more than the animal or person painted on the side of the school house building.

In history there have been many symbols to represent groups or two opposing sides in a war, or on an idea, or congregations. The symbols given to these groups represent much more than just the image they convey. Some symbols may mean wisdom or strength or loyalty as well as many other things. No matter what these representations mean, they promote spirit and the well being of the group.

The same effect is seen in schools. For example when cheer leaders chant they do not say the name of the school necessarily, they chant the name of the school mascots. These are symbols of respect, and can even be seen as representations of how fierce the opposing school teams can be.

Symbols often times have a psychological impact on people, for example, no matter how good the team you may be competing against may be, if they call themselves something soft such as the care bears, it feels as though they are not as good as they may be. It is important for a school symbol to be something that is of great respect as to draw more respect to the name of the school and its competitors. The intimidation factor is very important when thinking of a team symbol.

These symbols mean more than just school colors, they give people something to relate to and to feel as though they belong to. These symbols provide a means as to which people can feel as though they belong to. Such as clubs or foundations which have a symbol of an animal, instead of saying they belong to the club they simply say they are the animal that represents them. These symbols become a part of who you are.

Mascots may represent current events in the time of construction of a building or a group. For example, a school house which was once a jail house is now called freedom high school, this not only reflects the historical feel of the town and what it has gone through, but it gives the school a patriotic name thus generating the school pride. Several establishments may have been built in honor of people as well, such as presidents, or people such as Martin Luther King Jr.

Even though this is not normal, some institutions do not have symbols to represent them, many establishments such as musical institutions and such have a higher concentration on things that do not need symbols. Also, many private schools are known to not have a symbol like other public schools do because it may be hard and slightly strange to turn a religious figure into a symbol to represent a whole school.

Mascots are identifiable, they are symbols people relate with, they are what students and parents put their faith in during major sporting events. These mascot symbols are what represent the schools and the time periods they were build in. Theses symbols represent the school in one simple word, phrase, or animal.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment