Mentoring is a mandatory class at West Field High School in between first and second period. During this time, teachers are referred to as “mentors” who give students small each day regarding school spirit and personal growth. Students get a grade based on whether or not they participate and do the work that is given to them. I believe that schools should return to having study halls instead of a mentoring class because students already have enough homework, they’re more likely to skip and they’re not enthusiastic about participation.
Additionally, even though mentoring can be viewed as beneficial by teachers, there is still a possibility of it only adding stress to the students. The class itself relies on slideshows about self motivation and school spirit, which aren’t crucial to a learning environment. Not to say that school spirit can’t be important, but there’s a time and a place for it, such as at assemblies. For example, after doing my own research, I came across a school journalism article written by Elizabeth Petteway from Norwin High School. She stated, “Study hall helps students with maintaining a steady schedule and workflow so they can continue with extracurriculars like work and clubs.” I agree with this, because if West Field decided to change mentoring to a study hall, it would be more useful for getting homework done and having a period to relax. In the quote that was stated previously, Petteway also mentioned students having work and clubs. This applies because students are told to participate in more after school activities, but how can they with the stacks of papers they get assigned every day?
Furthermore, after consistently going to mentoring, I started to take notice of how many people wouldn’t show up to it. This could be because the class itself is only 25 minutes in length and only gives you .25 in credit, which isn’t enough to make it worth attending. With such a short time span, students most likely think it’s a waste of their time and decide that they would rather go grab food or sit in their cars. If you’re going to have a required class and don’t want people skipping it, you should include more in it. By changing mentoring to a study hall with more credit and lengthening it to 40 minutes, the attendance rates would go up. Students would feel more motivated to get their homework done in that class, especially if they are busy after school.
To add on to that, people who decide to attend mentoring usually don’t participate. They’re either on their phones or sleeping with their heads down. The class overall isn’t that exciting and some of the teachers don’t seem particularly interested in teaching it. Most of the assignments that are given out don’t have a lot of effort put into them and require the students to stay sitting down. In an article written by Alastair Gaban at Torrens University Australia, he stated, “Studying with a friend will improve your learning and help you do better academically.” If West Field did decide to include a study hall class with the option of studying alone or with friends, participation and grades would rise with more people being interested.
In conclusion, schools would be more effective if they were to implement study halls in replacement of mentoring. Students would have less of a workload, be more likely to attend the class and be more engaged. If the school aims to have their students get good grades and better GPAs, they should move towards making a change to what classes are mandatory and how to improve them.