Throughout the middle and high school experience, one class been prevalent through 13 years of education: homeroom. The main purpose of homeroom is to take attendance, distribute papers every so often, and watch the same repetitive announcements everyday.
But this time period is not needed.
First of all, attendance does not need to be taken in the homeroom. In fact, it would be better to take attendance during 1st period instead.
Homeroom is inherently less efficient than simply going to your 1st period class as your homeroom. At Bellwood-Antis, attendance is taken at 7:55 A.M and if you aren’t in the homeroom by that time you are marked absent.
This becomes humorous when you realize that the first period doesn’t begin until 8.02 A.M, so even if you are in the building and in the classroom you are still considered absent from school until you go to the guidance office.
Homeroom also adds unneeded traffic in the hallway. After homeroom the hallways flood with students, making it hard to traverse the hallways. If we began the school day in our first period, it would completely eliminate this problem.
Now, how can we fix the problem with the homeroom? Simple, make homeroom take place in the first period. School doors would open at 7:30, and students could make their way to their first period class where the teacher could distribute papers and watch the morning announcements.
This would make it easier for both teachers and students. Teachers wouldn’t have to wait for the students to pile into the room, and students wouldn’t have to bump into each other and navigate the chaotic hallways before first period.
A problem may arise with certain classes that aren’t in a normal room, for example, gym. We could solve this issue by having the class meet in the computer lab/health room. From there, the class could go to the gym locker room after announcements and then begin class. The hallway traffic wouldn’t be an issue since all students should already be in first period.
One of the major purposes of homeroom, the announcements, may be pointless themselves since they are the same repetitive information every day with little variation. Many of the important announcements could be done over the loudspeaker anytime throughout the day. The information of what the school is having for lunch or what the weather is like is unneeded and forgotten.
To conclude, homeroom is an unnecessary class that adds unneeded traffic and is pointless beyond distributing papers and watching the announcements. To simplify the morning, all students would meet in their first period class as if it were homeroom. This would make things easier for students and teachers and make the morning a little less stressful and chaotic.
