Opinion By ClareEckert 

At Marian we often hear the saying “tradition never graduates.” But what if it does? Generation Z is constantly criticized for their lack of social skills and participation in community as a result of their lifestyle and technology. Many teenagers, including myself, often shrug off this criticism as untrue, but maybe we need to start listening. Maybe, just maybe, phones are actually destroying our appreciation for interaction and community. 

French teacher Janet Tuttle and STEM Teacher Sharon Genoways opened my eyes to this truth.

Genoways has been teaching at Marian for 30 years and Tuttle has been teaching at Marian for 20. So you could say they have both earned the title of Marian experts. 

My first intention in interviewing these two teachers was to gather information for a story I was planning to write on why Marian needed to bring back the showing of a Halloween movie, an old Marian tradition. But when this interview was finished, I came out of it with much more than just information about Marian’s old Halloween movie tradition. 

When I asked these two teachers about whether or not they thought we should bring back Marian’s old tradition of showing a Halloween movie, they both said no. This answer came as a complete surprise to me, because I didn’t think there was anyone  who was opposed to the renewal of the fun tradition. However, upon hearing their reasoning, my viewpoint changed.  

The Halloween movie tradition at Marian was first started in 1971 and it has since been started and stopped many times over the years. The tradition was recently retired again last year. The tradition was when classes at Marian were shortened to just the morning and, in the afternoon, the whole school gathered in the gym to watch a Halloween movie. 

Genoways and Tuttle were both at Marian when the tradition was restarted. They recall that the revival of the tradition was kept a secret from Marian girls. To keep it a secret, the teachers told Marian girls that now retired teacher Mr. Baker was attempting to build the world’s biggest blanket fort and needed everyone to aid him in this effort by bringing in blankets. When Marian girls found out a movie was being shown, they went crazy. The two teachers recall that the entire student body of Marian excitedly squeezed in the west gym to watch Wait Until Dark, a black and white horror movie. Genoways fondly recalls how when the movie revealed a startling jump scare, almost every single Marian girl let out an audible scream, including Tuttle. 

At the tradition’s peak popularity, both Genoways and Tuttle were extremely fond of the tradition.  Both teachers used to actually reserve seats at the movie. Tuttle said, “I wouldn’t even just work my shift, I would go and watch the whole movie.” 

Despite the great joy the movie brought to the student body, every year the tradition continued, less and less Marian girls wanted to participate. Marian girls started getting called out of school and complaining that it was a “waste of time.” Genoways recalls that the girls simply stopped paying attention and continuously snuck their phones into the movie. This pattern has been repeated at multiple other Marian events such as Walkathon, gnimocemoh, the welcome dance, theme days, Freshman Fling, summer read day, surprise day and during CAB’s. Marian traditions and events that used to be extremely popular have slowly died away over time. 

Tuttle said, “It’s weirdly offensive as an adult in the building to think we tried to do something just for you and you guys basically just say no I don’t wanna do it.” She recalls times of saying “are you guys excited“ and girls responding with questions of “can I go home” and “can I call my mom?” 

Genoways expressed her worry that our generation has simply lost the ability to just play and have fun. She said that, nowadays, kids have so many things going on, on both weekdays and weekends, that it is almost impossible for them to set aside time for meaningless, fun activities. Tuttle said she thinks another reason for our generation’s lack of participation is that kids are in such a huge rush to get home and be able to scroll on their phones, a habit everyone is all guilty of nowadays. Genoways said she thinks a lot of the activities Marian used to do for fun, students simply do not want to participate in anymore. Lots of students have the attitude of “why should I be here if I don’t have to be.” 

Both teachers said that Marian students will not have many more opportunities left in life to just be told to play and have fun, so we should take advantage of these opportunities when they are given. Tuttle said, “the things that people remember about Marian aren’t their classes.” Both Tuttle and Genoways agree that our generation needs to learn how to have fun again and live in the moment. 

The conversation I had with these two teachers really opened my eyes to the lack of participation at Marian. Whenever an activity is deemed optional or purely for fun, Marian girls immediately lose interest. I am guilty of this as well. And yes, I know in this day and age when everything is go, go, go it is hard to set aside time for fun, but what we as teenagers do not realize is that we will not always be told to go and have fun. One day we’ll wake up and we will be adults. There will be no surprise day, no halloween movie, no club meings— only work. We have the rest of our lives to work, so right now we need to devote our time to fun, because we won’t always be able to. 

But despite all of this, Marian girls still have the capability of setting aside time for fun for one reason and one reason only, because of Field Day. No matter how stressed, how busy or how tired, every single Marian girl devotes a week to Field Day. Girls who normally hightail it out of school at the end of the day are seen staying after school for hours to help their Field Day committee produce a winning result. What makes Field Day have this effect on Marian girls—I’m not sure—maybe it is just the magic of Field Day. But whatever it is, I know we need more of it. Field Day shows me that Marian girls and our generation as a whole has the capacity to set aside time for fun. 

Each and every one of us can begin to put fun first and appreciate the little time we have left in our childhood, because even though our generation is often just as busy as adults, we are not adults and we need to act like it.