If you walk into Blackhawk Middle School on a Wednesday morning, you would be expecting students to be heading to their first period class. But that’s not the case. BMS students are actually heading to their homeroom class. What is this homeroom class? What do students do in their homeroom class? Do they like it? Do they loathe it? A few students and teachers tell how they feel about this whole homeroom every Wednesday idea, and if they would continue to have homeroom if they had the choice to.
A reporter asked some students from Mr. Arens’ homeroom if they liked having homeroom or not. Surprisingly, the reporter was told by most of the students in Mr. Arens’ class that they do not like having homeroom, and that they think it is a waste of time. Many students had strong feelings about homeroom. So let’s get some input about what some of the students said. Endim and her friend Jalaiya, sit quietly every Wednesday in Mr. Arens’ homeroom and follow directions and do what they’re told. The reporter decided to ask these two friends if they liked having homeroom, because it seemed like they didn’t mind sitting in the classroom.
A student from Mr. Arens’ homeroom Endim expresses, “Yeah, it must seem like I don’t mind having homeroom because me and my friend Jalaiya just sit and talk to each other and eat breakfast. But I actually think that homeroom is really boring. Homeroom is kind of a waste of time because we basically sit and do nothing most of time. Personally, I’d rather be on regular schedule because I get to eat lunch earlier. And I know that a lot of other students and my friends don’t like having homeroom.”
Another students from Mr. Arens’ homeroom Jalaiya states, “I don’t like having homeroom at all. It is really useless. Mr. Arens told the class that the school wants us to be talking about reading. Umm… this is what we’re already doing in language arts class. Why would a teacher that’s not my language arts teacher care about the book I’m reading about? And I get that sometimes in homeroom we have to discuss important topics such as bullying. So, I think that the school should just have homeroom when we have important topics to discuss about because, we don’t talk about bullying or other important things every week. Other than that, the school should really cut down on having homeroom. No one really likes having it anyway.”
A current teacher from Blachawk, Mr. Arens agrees with what his students are saying. “The students are right about the whole homeroom issue. Why have homeroom if the majority of students and some teachers don’t want it? I dread coming to school on Wednesdays because of homeroom. There are kids in my class that don’t follow directions at all. I have the good kids too but the majority of them just don’t listen. The school should just have homeroom if there are important things to discuss about. Other than that, there shouldn’t be homeroom. There are also random students coming into my classroom socializing. This is also showing that there’s nothing to do in homeroom so kids just leave their classrooms. If we were to give students work, there wouldn’t be kids wandering around the hallways. The school should at least give us teachers some work to do for the kids, but they don’t, most of the time. Kids also think that they can come late to school every Wednesday because of homeroom. Things are just getting out of control. I think that the higher staff members should reconsider having homeroom. I’m not saying that they should get rid of it completely, but they should not have it every week.”
Blackhawk Middle School is still going to continue to have homeroom every Wednesday. This means that people are still complaining about this issue. Many students talk to each other in the hallways on Wednesdays about how boring they think homeroom is. So if you ever happened to walk into BMS on a Wednesday, they’d still be walking into homeroom instead of their first period class. A former Blackhawk students states, “Homeroom was so boring. I’m glad I’m out of this place.”