Rules are what help keep us students in line so we can learn in a stable environment. But now with rules and restrictions on just about everything we do in school, are we really learning? School isn’t just a place to learn math and science. We’re also supposed to be learning life skills that will prepare us to go beyond high school.
First, I’ll talk about the biggest rule this school year has brought. The phone jails. I do think these phone boxes can be beneficial for a learning environment because they minimize distractions. However, at the same time, I don’t think students are learning how to manage themselves properly.
As an upperclassman, I’m thinking about my future in college, and I don’t think professors are gonna have phone boxes in class. I also don’t think they’re gonna care if I’m on my phone because that’s my choice. I know how to make choices for my education, and I think other students need to learn these skills in high school before they can go to a place of higher education.
Another rule I think prevents us from learning life skills is our closed campus policy. If at least upperclassmen were allowed to leave, go out and get lunch, then we could learn time management skills because, being late to school and just getting a tardy isn’t as bad as being late to work and facing worse consequences.
Students should be allowed to eat outside on the grass patch. We used to have seating to eat outside, and now it feels like we’re trapped and locked inside. I have heard two reasons for the closed campus policy. One being the fear of students ditching. I think that’s not fair to other students. Just because a few would ditch doesn’t mean everyone would, and if they do ditch it shouldn’t affect the whole student population. The second reason I have heard is for security reasons, but elementary students go outside for recess everyday so why can’t we go eat outside? For upperclassmen escapically we are young adults or some of us even are adults so why can’t we be treated like ones. In the future, we won’t be restricted to a building; students should be able to make choices that would benefit them the most. If that’s going home during lunch, eating on the green or ditching, I think the student should make that decision because no matter what they choose, they will learn if that is a good or bad decision to make for their own education.
Speaking of feeling trapped, this building has become too locked down. Having alarms on every door is unnecessary and annoying. Last year, some of my teachers would decide it was a nice day and continue our lesson outside, and those were the days I was most engaged. But now no teacher wants to go through the hassle of calling down a security guard to turn off the alarm because it takes forever.
We’ve all heard alarms scream for minutes at a time with no one coming to fix them, and you just have to deal with it. Students should be trusted to stay within the building parameters and not let others into the building. I understand recent events have led to these alarms but I am a firm believer punishing everyone over those few who made these poor decisions is the worst way for people to learn.
That seems to be the reason for many of these rules. A few people will ditch, be on their phones in class or let someone else into the building, and instead of dealing with it on an individual level, the whole community gets punished. That’s not fair to students who just use their phones for music during class, want to eat outside, or want to leave school through a different door.
High school is a place to learn and a safe place to fail in comparison to college and in real-world scenarios. Our colleges and work places won’t have restrictions on our devices, where we can go or anything else, because at that point we are responsible adults. If we are on our phones or are late to work from going to lunch, it won’t be a learning opportunity like it would have been in high school. It could be a fire instead. If we aren’t able to learn basic things in high school, then we will at some point in life. The consequences for those failures will be way larger out there than in here. This is why our rules need to become less restrictive.
