Advisory Period: Trust and Responsibility
Staff Writer, SaraJade Potts argues that while an open Advisory may take a lot of trust and responsibility, it is worth a try.
Freshman SaraJade Potts is a first year staff writer on the Elkhart Memorial GENESIS staff. She specializes in opinion columns.
January 27, 2020
The issue is Advisory. Recently, many students have been taking their advisory time as a “recess.” While the advisory period begins at 10:30, the bell to leave advisory and attend meetings and club events rings around 10:35. At that time, students should only be leaving if they have a pass signed.
At 10:40 students should be with whatever group, teacher, or club they need to be with. This is where things get untrustworthy. Some of the students walk around, mess around, or simply get caught for not doing what they are supposed to be doing in the hall during this half hour.
Students like me are tired of this. Yes, there are kids who actually use this time to their advantage like to get help on assignments, or to catch up on work after being absent, or to attend their club activities.
Most clubs are filled with students who have after school sports or have sponsors who may not be available after school, so they use this advisory time to get club activities completed. Some clubs require either a lot of time or just straight up quality time to get things completed.
For example, during the month of homecoming, student government had a lot of work to do. Whether it was building floats, organizing homecoming court, or selling homecoming shirts, student government depended on those thirty minutes. They don’t meet every week; however, when they do meet, they need advisory time. Because most of the representatives are in sports, have jobs, or other responsibilities that take place after school, they value the time during advisory when they can meet.
Honestly, a solution to this issue will take participation and effort from everyone. Instead of making the rules more complicated and controlling, how about giving everyone what they want? Open Advisory.
Yes, Advisory relies on trust and communication. Some teachers aren’t as understanding or as easy to get around when the students don’t have passes. This causes anger and acting out from the students. Instead of trying to follow the rules already in place, students no longer have the motivation to do the honorable thing because of the attitudes, lack of communication, and mediocre explanations from upper authority. Some of the students need the rules spelled out for them. Some completely understand how to handle the situations–they just need a push in the right direction.
Yes, this solution is risky. Having an open Advisory gives students more opportunities to make poor decision, but I have a few recommendations. Advisory monitors. In the morning when we enter school, we have staff members who check if we have our Id’s with us. Having some staff members monitor open Advisory could prevent some of the chaos in the halls. Having a check in and check out list for all the classrooms can keep track of where students are during Advisory.
Some students use Advisory as a brain break. Most underclassmen spend from 7:00 a.m. until 2:40 p.m. at EMHS. Some students even have sports practice until 4:30 p.m. or 5:00 p.m. That’s around six to eight hours of being in an educational setting Monday through Friday. A brain break does matter if we rely on our students to stay on task and focus.
Yes, it will take effort. Instead of throwing away an impactful 30 minutes, help us students improve this issue through many changes as a whole student body and teaching staff.
The views in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of the GENESIS staff. Email SaraJade Potts at [email protected]
