Homeroom drifts from casual atmosphere

While home room meetings have always involved lessons in character, team-building, reading, service and college and life skills, this year’s curriculum has been modified to focus on getting assignments completed and moving on to the next task. Sophomore Moses Chavez-Gray has noticed the change.

“I feel homeroom has become more tedious in the fact that there is a lot more work and it has become less of a time to relax or hang out with friends,” Chavez-Gray said. “Now you have things that must be done at a certain time period and it becomes more like a class and less of an ideal experience of what I think homeroom should be which, in my opinion, is a time to just bond with your fellow peers.”

Sophomore class sponsor and home room teacher Gabrielle Powers also believes homeroom is becoming a schedule-oriented class period.

“I’ve been here since home room started and initially there wasn’t really anything the students and their homeroom teachers had to be involved in,” Powers said. “It wasn’t until later on that we were started on programs that required semester or yearly activities.”

Powers said she understands Chavez-Gray concern.

“Home room has become sort of a checklist of things, and by the end of the day the students are tired and uninterested to do anything. You must also consider the fact that there’s no grade or accountability towards it,” Powers said. “Although that’s not the intent of homeroom, sometimes it does just end up being one more class you have to teach, or one more thing you have to get done in your day.”

By Briana Sandoval