New Trier is not a typical high school. This is well-known. Gym class cannot be called P.E., but rather Kinetic Wellness. Class rank? Forget about it. The list goes on and on, and although quirky, almost all of these idiosyncrasies are justifiable, if not correct. One quirk, however, is wrong, and that’s the dividing line when it comes to the Homecoming dance. Freshmen should be allowed to attend Homecoming.

New Trier’s Northfield campus undoubtedly makes a smoother transition for the 1,000 or so nervous freshman each year. Thought of by some as a “bigger junior high school,” it allows an opportunity to get acquainted with the demands of a high school workload while not having to worry about dodging the potentially-intimidating seniors that roam the Winnetka campus. What the Northfield campus fails to do, however, is unite the freshmen with their upperclassmen. This unification is so important because the upperclassmen will leave a foundation that the freshmen will build upon over three years. When New Trier West and New Trier East merged in 1981, considerable efforts were made to stifle any possible conflict between the former rival schools. These efforts might have succeeded too much, to the point that school spirit plateaued (although spirit has seen a surge of late, as detailed in last week’s editorial). Allowing freshmen to attend the Homecoming dance would go a long way in patching up the inherent discord left between campuses. Upperclassmen would establish the inclusive nature we all remember from the Bar/Bat Mitzvah years; just two months into their high school career, freshmen would have the opportunity to get a peek at future classmates. They’d have an opportunity to see the building they’d be spending their next three school years in. They’d actually feel like they were in high school, and New Trier High School, at that.

The separate freshman mixer alleviates much of the stress experienced by freshmen. There’s no questioning that. Its “no-date” structure means that freshmen can feel more comfortable by going with their friends. The laid-back nature of the whole night does wonders in making freshmen truly feel welcomed. All of these measures are very effective, but the stress surrounding the foreign social pressures of freshmen year still exists. This is evinced by the fact that some freshmen started securing Turnabout dates two weeks into the school year. The Turnabout dance is on March 7, 2015. That’s over five months away. This widespread overanxiety is going to occur no matter the date of the freshman class’s first school dance. Freshmen will inevitably ask dates early, so why not use this to the school’s advantage? Having a school-wide Homecoming dance would literally take away the freshman class’s ability to ask so early. It would prevent this (extremely) premature Turnabout date-asking by providing an earlier event to which they could secure dates. Freshmen will inevitably feel pressure to ask a date to a dance; why not get this pressure out of the way sooner by allowing them to come to Homecoming?

As freshmen, there was something weird about going to the Homecoming football game but not being able to go to the actual dance the next night. It felt like we were part of a satellite Trevian population, like we’d have to wait one more year to get the true high school experience. It’s time for this exclusion to end. In this case, we should emulate Evanston, Loyola, and just about every other high school in the area. On the eve of Homecoming 2014, we’d like to say that it’s okay to conform, New Trier. The freshmen will thank you for it.