Kingswood Oxford loves to pride themselves on traditions. So much so, that one of the oldest traditions at Kingswood Oxford is in the middle of campus: the senior green. The senior green is a giant patch of grass that only seniors can walk on. The underclassmen are allowed but have to be invited on. They can walk with seniors to classes and play games like Spikeball and KanJam.
The senior green is a fast, easy way to get to classes, it is a reward to the senior class for accomplishing so much and getting to the point where their high school career is almost over. It is something students look forward to after working so hard for so long, especially those who are seven year seniors.
However, the issue is that we have become too relaxed with who exactly is walking across the green. Now that it is getting colder, it is not as much of an issue but earlier this autumn there were times when juniors and sophomores outnumbered the seniors on the green three to one. I am not saying that you can’t invite your friends onto the senior green or that underclassmen aren’t allowed on there. But it gets to a certain point where the underclassmen just assume they can walk onto the green without being invited or asking to come just because there was one time where they were invited on either the other day or week.
There are also instances where underclassmen walk on without a senior and seniors reserve the right to ask them to get off; however, they turn, laugh, and proceed to carry on. This is a huge slap in the face to all seniors because we have worked hard to get to this point in our lives, and the green is a symbol of that. I used to be absolutely terrified to walk across the green in my previous years even when invited on, the green was sacred and the seniors wouldn’t tolerate kids walking on it with a senior that well.
I applaud Kingswood Oxford for creating a better community and having friendships that stretch across ages and forms, but there are also things that can be represented by just the class. A problem, however, is that the faculty loves to press the idea of tradition, but when it comes to keeping the tradition intact especially something as old as the senior green they neglect the importance and move on. For years, kids knew not to cross the green out of respect and then the faculty enforced the tradition better.
However, now if a group of seniors yells to a group of sophomores or juniors to get off, the faculty will automatically punish the seniors, or at least given them a stern talking to about being respectful. When kids are laughing at what students are saying, it is more disrespectful especially since what the seniors say isn’t ever mean or impolite. Also what the juniors who do this don’t realize is that they are only making this harder on themselves because when mainly sophomores and freshmen see them just walk onto the green and disregard what the seniors say, they are going to believe that it’s okay to do as well.
This will then create a cycle that goes on until the senior green doesn’t even matter anymore and the tradition has completely deteriorated. Also what they don’t realize is that if they were invited onto the green by a senior one day, that does not count as a pass to walk on it every other day.
Although they could be one senior’s friend, that could be their only senior friend that and then the whole group of seniors on the green get annoyed because someone they didn’t invite is walking on the green like they are all that.
So basically what I am trying to say here is, would it kill you to ask?
