Homeroom: Time Wasted or Well-Spent?

At the beginning of the semester that just ended, Mira Costa faculty voted to create a homeroom period every Friday. Now, only four months later, the proposal to extend the 24-minute period into the next school year has been rejected by the teachers, 69-48, making last Friday's homeroom Costa's final one.

This seemingly small addition to the school week at Mira Costa, followed by its sudden disappearance, has garnered strong opinions from many students and teachers.

Homeroom was put in place to give students and teachers a chance to take care of administrative duties that would otherwise interfere with class time. Homeroom allowed students to take care of tasks such as voting for the Associated Student Body, selecting the prom king and queen and watching the weekly Mustang Morning News. Also, homeroom time gave students the chance  to take makeup tests that were missed due to absences.

Although homeroom has been an opportunity to catch up on many responsibilities, teachers, and even some students have not been happy about missing 36 minutes  (the 24-minute homeroom plus two six-minute passing periods) of instruction every Friday. A key problem with the homeroom schedule is those two passing periods--one so students can get from third period to their homeroom class and the another to get from homeroom to fourth period.

Twelve minutes may seem minimal, but the passing periods alone subtract 240 minutes from instruction time each semester. Teachers are unhappy to lose all of this class time, especially on Fridays when focusing is hard enough for students already preoccupied with the fast-approaching weekend.

Some students oppose the homeroom period because Friday is when many teachers give tests and quizzes. The loss of seven minutes from each class results in teachers doing one of two things with exams: moving them to Monday, which is unpopular because it means weekend studying, or keeping them on Friday but with less time given to complete them. It is difficult for students to finish a 59- minute test in only 52 minutes.

Another grievance students have with the homeroom schedule is its unnecessary length. The tasks that need to be completed in homeroom usually take less than 10 minutes, leaving students sitting at their desks, frequently doing nothing for the remainder of the period.

Despite the homeroom problems, however, many teachers and students are disappointed the experiment has ended. The people on campus most peeved by the vote are the English teachers. Before the homeroom addition, ASB and prom voting would take place during English classes. So the change had allowed English teachers to gain more instruction time.

Many English teachers believe that it is unfair that time is taken away from their classes while other departments' curricula are not affected. They believe the homeroom arrangement was an effective and valuable method for addressing administrative tasks.

As for students, many are going to miss the 24-minute break from tests, homework and stress.

Adam Gerard is a rising sophomore at Mira Costa High School. His student columns appear semi-regularly at Manhattan Beach Patch.