The township of Wayne has recently cut back on having individual substitutes in classrooms. Instead, they created an “academic study hall” where students gather in the commons when their teacher is absent from school. The district, facing a $7 million shortfall next school year, implemented the study hall as a cost-saving measure. Students, teachers, and substitutes have different opinions about this addition.
When asking a teacher about the new change and their opinions, Mrs. Anthony said, “I think kids are getting as much done in the academic study hall as they are in the original classrooms. I think as long as the kids are held accountable to being there which I think would be the main concern is that kids would come and go as they please in that bigger space but as long as there contained in the room they can sit at a table and do work just like they could sit in my classroom and do work.”
Mrs. Anthony’s outlook on this is that students get the same work done either way, so this isn’t a harm to students just a different setting.
Students at Wayne Hills seem to have a ton of mixed emotions about it.
Eden Hession, a Sophomore, shared her perspective about learning in academic study, “I think it makes learning worse because we’re distracted, since we’re with people from other classes, it may be more fun, but it’s like not as helpful to my academic learning.” Although it’s socially beneficial, some feel academically it might not be.
Sophomore Carli Shultz has a similar opinion and sees the positive and negative sides to implementing this into high schools. She said, “I think it’s very unnecessary and I think that people just fool around thinking it’s like a study and do not complete their work… I think it effects my learning in a negative way. On the other hand, I also like it cause you’re with your friends and you can get food.”
Students seem to like the social aspect of this study hall, compared to a substitute in each classroom, where it is more strict and less social.
Senior Amber Peterson loves this change, as someone who likes to socialize. She says, “I actually really like academic study because I don’t have to do anything but socialize with my friends. I don’t do any work during academic study, so I’m not learning anything, but I don’t really care.”.= Amber is happy to be with her friends, even if this means making up the work on her own time. Another senior, Avery Saper, shares with us her downfalls to academic study. She shares that, “There’s never any Wi-Fi in here so you can’t even do anything if you wanted to do it so as far as work goes it’s not very productive and sometimes it’s really loud in here there’s a lot of people that are just socializing but I like it but I think it’s not productive.”
As proven, there are many different feelings and opinions towards academic study. One common feeling that students have is that they enjoyed being able to interact with their friends. However, there are some downfalls consisting including the Wifi and noise being an issue, students enjoy spending time with their friends. Since they don’t usually see these friends in their classes, they can sit with them in the commons and catch up.
