Affirmative

15* Minutes Could Save You 15% or More on Mental Sanity

Remember that anonymous survey we all had to fill out about how we feel about the school? To the question, “Do you feel like your teachers care about you?” many students replied that yes, they do feel as if their teachers care about them academically; however, a huge majority said they did not feel emotionally supported by teachers. The results clearly show that students feel as if teachers, administrators and themselves prioritize total academic success over their mental and physical health. With this, the homeroom schedule was created to put students with their teachers without academic motives. Admittedly, the mandatory “class” is not effective in forcing the ‘safe space’ atmosphere between students and teachers. However, the true mental health impact of this class period is entirely misunderstood. The fact is, homeroom schedule has an extremely high potential for students to improve their mental well-being by providing as a stress- free atmosphere.

We are put into rigorous and competitive classes, our brains are constantly bombarded with exams, long to-do lists, and fears about not having an impressive college resume. It’s impossible to take time in our week, especially during the school day, to give our tired minds a break. The fact is, we, as a society, know that we are overworking ourselves. We constantly prioritize work over our health, and this mindset is getting harsher and set into younger minds, as school intensifies the amount of expectations on students’ mental endurance. It’s obvious that students are continuously thinking about the never ending cycle of class, then homework, then class; ignoring adequate sleep and eating habits. With administrators acknowledging our stressful schedules by giving more time in between classes, students can finally catch a break.

  The time to unwind is rarely present in teenage lives, especially in such an academically demanding atmosphere such as Enloe. With these free thirty minutes, we meet new people, see what teachers actually do in their free time, and just relax. This period is a great way for students to be able to interact with each other, feeling a larger sense of community. Students of one homeroom have admitted to actually liking this free period, as the class spends their time having Brawl Stars tournaments together every week. This time also promotes student interaction with their school, as the addition of homeroom representatives allow an increased circulation of news about clubs, events and achievements to everyone. A physical person talking to your face is a much more effective way to spread information that otherwise would have been overlooked on the school announcements. A four-in-one, this period can function as a study hall, snack break, announcement post and a mental health awareness day; giving only great benefits to students.

Some will say that homeroom wastes class time, but don’t students have enough during the eight hour day? Why must students, along with staff, be at full capacity of productivity every single second of their lives? In the end school will always be school and we can never completely eliminate stress.The least we can have is that miniscule amount of time, just thirty glorious minutes, to relieve the burdensome weight on our shoulders.

Opposition

Some Eagles Don’t Need a Nest

Enloe has an incredibly diverse student population. Our student body is made up of countless individuals with different cultures, backgrounds, political beliefs and morals. It is almost impossible to find two people with the exact same perspective on…well, anything. However, I think we can all agree on one thing: homeroom needs to go.

This is not the first year that we have had to endure the unbearable nuisance that is homeroom. In years past we’ve had to drag ourselves to homeroom for the first couple weeks of school, but it was a short enough span of time that we never ran out of ground rules to go over, and after that, we were done! Out of sight and out of mind, homeroom served no real purpose, and we were all more than fine with that. Better yet, if you happened to be born into an unfortunate section of the alphabet and had no friends in your homeroom, it wasn’t the end of the world. You only had to see your fellow B’s, R’s or Q’s a few times a year, and outside of those couple weeks, the whole alphabet was your oyster. 

Now, not only do we have homeroom for the first 10 days, but we’re forced to bear it every Wednesday for the rest of the year. This creates extreme levels of confusion on whether to report to second period or not, as well as altering the time that each class begins and ends. Being a freshman in high school is already nerve wracking enough as it is. I remember my first year at Enloe, stumbling through the halls, experiencing panic attacks in the atrium because I had no idea which tower was which. Never sure where to go, who to talk to. If this new homeroom system had been implemented that year, I doubt I ever would’ve found any of my classes on time. The moment homeroom became a weekly institution, the class of 2023 was put at an instant disadvantage. 

Believe it or not, these changes can be just as disorienting for upperclassmen. Getting cookout is fun and all, but if you happen to go off campus on a Wednesday and no one in the car knows what time lunch ends, you can go ahead and kiss your senior exemptions goodbye! Our minds are already constantly being filled to the brim with facts, definitions, and formulas, so how can we be expected to remember something as ridiculous as the homeroom schedule? 

Homeroom may have a detrimental effect on a student’s daily routine, but even worse are the monotonous activities that we are forced to adhere to within homeroom. On the first day of homeroom, my teacher (a lovely man who will not be named), had us do an activity in which we took out a piece of paper, wrote something that we did over the summer, and then crumpled that paper up and threw it around the classroom for someone else to read. This was an immense waste of classroom resources, and it very nearly resulted in countless paper cuts inflicted upon myself and my fellow students. I don’t blame my teacher for this dangerous and unreasonable exercise. He was just trying to put a smile on our faces as our lives slowly wasted away for those 23 brutal minutes. However, his attempts were futile. At this point, it is clear that the only way to alleviate the misery that surrounds homeroom is to eliminate homeroom itself.