Thursday, January 20, 2011

School Mascots And What They Represent

By Adriana Noton


Mascots are symbols that represent a specific group that stands for something more than what it appears on the surface. These symbols promote the spirit and the dedication to the specific group and the beliefs the group stands for.

For the longest time these symbols have been used to represent opposing sides, whether it be governmentally or just for competitions sake, mascots have been used. Some of the most common mascots like the elephant to represent republicans, or the donkey to represent the democrats mean more than just a division between two sides. One could arguably say that the elephant represents wisdom and the donkey represents moronic behaviors. This of course is a generalization but theses symbols give people spirit.

In schools these symbols have the same effect, the images become a part of the students identities, they become what they relate to as a whole. The cheer leaders chant the name of the mascot rather than the school name because people do not relate to a building, but the people who are inside the building who call themselves the same mascot that you call yourself. In time it becomes something that needs defending against bad names, or bad reputations, like a family name.

For example, if you were on the high school basket ball team, it would be easy to think that a team called the honey bees would be an easy win, however, if you take the same players and match them against a team called the lions there is a bit of a psychological impact on students.

Not only are these simple representations of the school something that determines the school colors, they give students something to relate to. On school teams the mascot becomes a part of who you are. These become something that students relate to and identify with. Similar to the army, navy, or marines, all of its members identify with who they have become by singing up with the program.

These symbols can mean much more than just how ferocious the opposing teams may be, but they can represent time periods or people as well. Current events always have an impact on the buildings being built in that period of time. For example if a building where new laws were passed turned into a school house it would not only be easy to understand why it could be called, Liberty, but it makes sense. Also many establishments are named after people because of their intense impression during the era or just because of their lasting impact, for example, Martin Luther King Jr. Not only has many buildings named after him, but many street signs as well.

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 simple images or characters that represent a group or an organization, for these to be successful and to make an impact on the group they need to be identifiable and relatable. More importantly they need to be representative of something more than just a mascot group, but for what the group stands for.




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