Friday, April 9, 2010
By David Copeland
Sports Editor
One of the largest schedule changes to Mira Costa in years may also be one of the administration’s biggest mistakes. Starting second semester this year, Costa students were forced to take on a homeroom period every Friday that will not serve any constructive purpose for the student body.
Because of the addition of homeroom, each period every Friday is shorter by approximately five minutes. By removing this time from each period, Mira Costa is cutting valuable time from a day commonly used for tests and quizzes. This undoubtedly makes an impact on students and their grades.
During the second semester, students face the challenges of AP tests in May and the stress of important second semester grades. With less instruction time, students have less time to learn invaluable content at an important time of the year.
Some teachers are using this homeroom period to have “social time” and find out more about the personalities of their students. However, this bonding time is barely valuable when it cuts valuable instruction time needed for other periods.
Homeroom might have been a good idea if more valuable information was given out during this period. When a La Vista survey asked if students thought that their time was being used resourcefully during homeroom, 84 percent said that it was not.
Homeroom should only be used, if at all, to give the students needed information and to do necessary activities that would take up too much time in a normal academic class.
Furthermore, there is no incentive for students to cooperate during this period because no grade is given for it. The teachers have very little authority in homeroom because the students and teachers are unable to become familiar with each other.
Not only has the administration imposed this new period on the student body without asking its opinion, but also this same La Vista poll shows that administrators have not even made this purpose clear to the student body. According to the survey, 88 percent of students do not think that homeroom has a definite objective.
Students won’t take homeroom seriously if they do not even know its purpose. They cannot be expected to benefit from this period if Costa’s administration doesn’t make its goals clear.
An argument in favor of homeroom is that possibly, once people get used to their teachers and classmates, they will slowly start to appreciate the positive aspects of having this extra period. However, homeroom has been carried out for eight weeks and 80 percent of students still believe that it is unnecessary.
Homeroom is a unequivocally a waste of time. A majority of students think that it is, and it lessens needed class time on Fridays. Homeroom needs to be reconsidered by the administration.
There is compelling evidence to show that homeroom is wasteful of educational time and disliked by a majority of the student body.
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