Advisory Period Needs to Be Condensed

Every Tuesday for half an hour, freshmen are required to attend their assigned advisory class, with the purpose of becoming more connected with the new high school environment.

During this period, students have discussions and do a variety of activities with their student advisers, focusing on respect and the school’s vision statement. Advisory is a place where freshmen can have their questions answered.

“We guide the freshmen into hopefully a smooth transition into high school,” student advisor senior Becca Kaufman said. “Our goal for the class is for the freshmen to feel comfortable in high school. By using this time, we hope that it sets the freshmen off on the right foot.”

However, the time the students spend could be put to better use by working on homework or talking to teachers. Starting the students off “on the right foot” would be better achieved if they were given the time to spend on homework assignments.

“It would be nice to do homework,” freshman Emily Pacholski said. “Sometimes we had day we could work on homework and it really did help.”

Students actually want to do homework, and with their busy schedule and tremendous homework load, they need that time to work on their studies.

Once a week for an entire semester is a lot of time, especially when there are a limited amount of topics the students can discuss during the advisory period.

It is not beneficial to the students to sit around in a class not doing anything productive when they could be using that time getting their work done or retaking missed tests.

Many students complain that they do not do very much during their advisory periods and it is a waste of time.

Also, the number of activities that the advisory class does can easily be condensed into half the amount of time, making the class more enjoyable for the freshmen students.

“The advisory period should just be during first quarter,” freshman Jacqui Treiger said. “The first few weeks are helpful when we are just getting used to the new campus, but then we don’t do much.”

Meeting less often is another option to condense the class.

“Every week for a whole semester is a lot. It would be better if we met every two weeks or so,” student adviser senior Margueritte Aozasa said.

Advisory should be condensed into a shorter period of time, making the advisory period more interesting and allowing more time for freshman to be productive with their work.