The Labor of School Spirit Days

At some elementary schools in the US and Canada, themed, costumed "Spirit Days" run for months on end. Meant to foster community, these days also amount to added labor for teachers and parents. Anne Helen Petersen, a former senior culture writer at Buzzfeed who now authors the newsletter “Culture Study” on Substack and the co-author with Charlie Warzel of Out of Office: The Big Problem and Bigger Promise of Working from Home (Knopf, 2021), offers context after hearing from educators, and parents call in to share their thoughts.