To study or not to study: why study hall would benefit students
Several high schools across the country have study hall, which is a class period that is devoted to studying, doing homework, working on research, etc. Schools in Pittsylvania County do not offer study hall, but it would be more beneficial than some may think.
High schools like ours need to have a study hall option to allow students to have time to complete their schoolwork while having hectic schedules. For instance, some students have to work right after school and may even be scheduled to work until midnight, especially during the holiday season. They may also participate in several extra curricular activities, such as sports practice, club meetings, or even SCAEL matches. Sports participation requires out-of-town drives to games and daily practices that can extend well into the evening. For clubs like Future Farmers of America (FFA), BETA, DECA, and Interact, there are time-consuming requirements, such as working the Martinsville Race and completing a certain amount of volunteer hours. Furthermore, club members must maintain specific expectations. For example, BETA requires all students to maintain a GPA of 3.5 or higher.
Outside of these activities, there are also students who are not able to get homework done at home because they have obligations, such as taking care of their younger siblings, grocery shopping for parents who work night shift, or taking care of disabled family members.
Some more benefits of study hall would be time for classmate tutoring, exam preparation, and group projects. By having a study hall of mixed grade levels, older students could tutor underclassmen in classes they have already taken. A freshman in Algebra II would benefit greatly by doing tutoring with a junior who is in pre-calculus. Also, study hall would be helpful for completing group projects, as it can be very hard to meet up outside of school without transportation. Let’s say a student really wants to meet up to work on a group project, but he or she cannot drive to go to the other members’ houses: study hall would eliminate this problem.
Those in opposition to having study hall may ask where it could be held or how it would fit into students’ schedules.
Well, the auditorium would be a great location for study hall. It is empty most of the time with the exception of drama classes. It is a spacious area and has plenty of room for students. Plus, it would be good for people who have to memorize lines/practice for a play because there is a stage. The library is a nice option, as well, because it has computers and a printer that students could use for researching, current event assignments, etc. Also, the library is quiet and Mrs. Yeatts is kind and willing to help with whatever students need.
Study hall could be held during students’ lunches and they could have the option of going there instead of remaining in the cafeteria. Another option would be offering study hall as an elective class. This way, students can choose to spend 90 minutes doing something beneficial for their core classes instead of being in an elective class they are not interested in. Study hall could be optional and only students who really need the extra time, such as the ones working late, could sign up for it.
Overall, study hall is a beneficial class that our school system should consider implementing into high schools. Not only is it a great time to get work done, but it allows students to have time to themselves and prepare for independent learning they will have to do in college.
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Jordan Davis is a senior at Tunstall High School. This is her first year on the Trojan Messenger staff. Outside of journalism, she also has taken chorus...
Linda Yeatts • Mar 10, 2018 at 9:26 am
When I attended Tunstall (many years ago 🙂 ) there was a study hall option. It was held in the auditorium with teachers taking turns monitoring it for one period which was only about 50 minutes at the time. We had six/seven period days then. It was unfortunately used as a place to supervise students who simply didn’t want to take another class. It was actually rarely used for study and I remember quickly volunteering to work in the library for this period after a week of dodging spitballs in “study hall”. The urge to have a place for supervision for students who didn’t like classwork was just too tempting, I suppose. Many other students volunteered to help in classrooms or the office, as I remember. But even if great care was taken to ensure students honestly just wanted a quiet place to study during lunch or an elective period, there are problems with using a school library for this option.
I know that people generally look to the library for the study hall option. I understand this thinking. I really do. But it assumes that the library is empty during lunch and that it is always quiet. This simply is not true of active school libraries and Tunstall’s library in particular. Confusing an active school library with a public library (generally a quiet monitored space) is a common misconception. A study hall elective would effectively block an entire period each day from collaborative projects with teachers and their students, as well as requests for a presentation venue and some testing sessions. In my humble estimation, collaborative projects is a much better use of the library and the librarian as the resources they are intended to be. Scheduling a study hall in the library during lunch would effectively deny every third period access to the library for creative projects. Movie-making, scavenger hunts, webquests, book speed dating, graduate of merit presentations, Voki creating, FlipGrid projects are not quiet. They are noisy, busy, rich-learning experiences and great FUN. They are, by far, more important to the mission of the school than providing a study hall. They also require the full attention of the librarian and use of the library’s computer resources. Since January 2018, no less than 28 collaborative projects/presentations for this time period would have been interrupted. And that’s counting several days missed for weather!
Besides, there are other viable options with computers for research and printing capabilities within the building.