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Niles West News

The Student News Site of Niles West High School

Niles West News

The Student News Site of Niles West High School

Niles West News

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Homeroom: Is It Really Necessary?

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After the third period dismissal bell, the hallways are filled with chaos and a frenzy of lockers opening and closing, and students dipping into one bathroom only to see that the line is too long and they won’t get to their next class in time.

Except that there is no real class that these kids are rushing to get to. Instead, they are rushing to homeroom, the mandatory 10 minute ‘break’ students can have to do… nothing? Homeroom isn’t meant for anything other than a place to go for 10 minutes in the middle of the day. It’s too short to do any homework, which means you’re just sitting there waiting for that 10:41 bell to ring.

On top of this, there are “hallway sweeps” that the deans conduct to ensure that students get to homeroom on time, but then this defeats the idea that homeroom is meant to be a break. Although being late for any reason to a class that does not matter can result in a detention, homeroom is not a class. This is unfair to the students that need to access their lockers or stay after class to talk to a teacher. If homeroom is meant to be a break from classes, detentions should be out of the question.

Although homeroom is supposed to be used as a way for teachers to show students the morning announcements, that is not always the case. Sometimes teachers will just not show the announcements. Others will end up making the entire class shut up in order to show them, which just makes people hate the announcements even more. As a former broadcasting student, I can tell you first hand that the announcements are hard to create. Everything is shot in one take, so if there are any mistakes, the crew has to start all over. It can be really frustrating, but there is a a lot of hard work that is put into the announcements. If there wasn’t any homeroom, students would probably just get emailed the video, enabling them to watch it whenever they have time, not just randomly in the middle of the day, and actually pay attention to the show.

However, there are the few students that use this time to eat lunch, but how can someone only need 10 minutes to eat an entire lunch that was meant for 42. They’re better off eating during one of their other classes or study halls.

The only good part about homeroom that I’ve seen so far is students that don’t bring food from home are able to buy lunch during those few minutes. The downside to that is the wait; I’m pretty sure it takes a few minutes to grab your food, pay and sit down, and by the time that whole process is done, you’re stuck with only half of homeroom to eat, which is 5 minutes.

Overall, I personally think homeroom is a waste of time for the majority of students because they already have a lunch period as a break, and possibly a study hall on top of that. If we did get rid of homeroom, we would be able to either start school later, or end earlier. However, there are the few students that benefit by having homeroom lunch, or using homeroom as a time to stop by their locker or use the bathroom. Therefore, it wouldn’t be beneficial to those few that need the extra 10 minutes.

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  • J

    john smithApr 1, 2022 at 1:26 PM

    I think that people shall do homeroom activity such as , 1) door decorating or 2) competition through out the school that will grant the winner a small prize. This will make the students have a more productive way to start out their day and it will also help there brain begin to start learning.

    Reply
  • B

    BobSep 21, 2017 at 8:31 AM

    Homeroom is a waste of 15 minutes we could get rid of it for longer lunch, resource or even staying at home

    Reply
  • R

    ReaderApr 3, 2017 at 8:31 PM

    Very bad writing style.Some of us value our homeroom. I don’t have a lunch period because of extra classes I am taking so homerooms is my lunch time. Some might argue it’s only ten minutes but I’m grateful I at least have time to get food from the cafe and eat the next period. To contradict your statement, lunch period is not a free period to all students like you assumed because not all people have it. Please talk to some people or do some backround searching before making unjustified claims. its called constructive criticism. Trust me, you need it

    Reply
    • S

      StevenApr 1, 2022 at 8:49 AM

      Nerd

      Reply
    • A

      Aidan FergusonApr 6, 2022 at 1:17 PM

      nerd

      Reply
  • L

    laquinMar 23, 2017 at 9:20 PM

    I enjoy homeroom. It is helps let out some stress

    Reply
  • A

    AlumMar 23, 2017 at 6:27 PM

    Homeroom is not supposed to be a time for students to be nothing. It is a 10 minuet period for students to receive important information such as morning announcements or other pieces of information. It is true that some teachers do not show the announcements and that is a problem that should be dealt with it still doesn’t mean homeroom is pointless.

    Reply