By Meghan Plambeck

At the BLT meeting this week, one of the things that was discussed was changing the availability of study hall to AHS students. The issue was that student productivity in study hall is low, and they discussed various ways to change that. I think that study hall should be left as it is for many different reasons.

In every study hall that I’ve been in, there have been a large number of kids who aren’t being productive. However, this is rarely the case for them every day of the year. On days where homework is heavy and tests are frequent, study halls are a place for kids to prepare for their classes and get their homework done. I know many people who wouldn’t do their homework without study halls, and it wouldn’t be fair to take it away from them. Additionally, the issue of student productivity will be an issue no matter if they are in study hall or not. If I was not allowed to take study hall, I would replace is with classes that have a reputation of being easy, where a lot of free time and not a lot of homework is given.

Study hall guarantees me that I won’t have to miss a class by being involved in sports by scheduling it for my eighth period classes. Without it, I would have to miss my final class of the day 2-3 times per week during my sports seasons. Not being present in class is extremely hard to make up, especially that often. It also allows for me to schedule doctor and dentist appointments during this time to avoid missing class.

One of the ideas discussed to solve the problem was to have students apply to study hall. While this is a better alternative to losing the class across the board, it would easily become a flawed system. There are days in study hall where I don’t have any homework to do, so the teacher would view me as one of the kids who isn’t productive on those days. If this is what the person who viewed my application to study hall remembered, then I would likely not be accepted.

Though study hall is not perfect, the time it allows to study and do homework is a vital part of many peoples days. The consequences of taking it away far outweigh the current problem of student productivity.