Trick or Teach?

Dressing up during the Halloween event at The Columbus School has undoubtedly become part of the school’s culture, even for teachers.

New teachers and those who have worked at the school for multiple years decide to unleash their creativity and become someone or something else for a day, while interacting with the students and fellow teachers. Even though most teachers dress up for the event, there’s a big portion who doesn’t.

“Overall I think most teachers dress up. In elementary there are a lot of teams that do themes and in Middle School we also had most teachers dressing up with a theme of some kind,” Britta McCarthy, 8th grade science teacher, said.

Even though McCarthy has dressed up for Halloween 3 out of the 4 years she’s worked at school, she understands teachers who don’t dress up for the event.

“I think our lives are busy and sometimes making a costume is not the priority. Costumes require time, creativity, sometimes money or getting a lot of resources together and sometimes it just doesn’t fit in the week,” McCarthy said.

However, many teachers who don’t dress up for Halloween still enjoy attending and witnessing the event.

“I have attended the Halloween celebration during the last 20 years because I find it very interesting and attractive,” Norberto Villa, 10th grade AP Spanish Language and Culture teacher, said.

Even though Villa has attended the event for 20 years, he has never dressed up for it thanks to the way he was raised.

“I think that depends on your childhood and to have been raised in a culture in which dressing up was common, and I didn’t have that so I don’t feel comfortable,” Villa said.

In contrast, student enjoy when teachers dress up for Halloween as it brings more interaction and fun to the event.

“I think that halloween is one of the most important events at the school because it unites all of us. So the fact that teachers participate in it and go dressed up builds up the event even more… I appreciate when teachers come dressed up, it shows that you are never too old to have some fun and that they truly feel part of the community,” Juan Felipe Gaviria, 11th grade student, said.