An 8th grader's opinion: The Debate In Monument Valley Regional Middle School about Study Halls5/2/2018 by Leo M Study Halls at Monument Valley Regional Middle School (MVRMS) have come and gone throughout the years and have taken multiple forms; students and staff members have voiced differing opinions on whether study halls should be brought back for everyone again. Study halls are a period of time in a school curriculum set aside for study and the preparation of schoolwork. Currently there is a study hall in MVRMS for certain students but for the majority of the school (as of 2018) there is no study hall. A large amount of students at MVRMS want study halls to be brought back for everyone. “Study halls are a good time to get help on homework from other students instead of waiting until the next morning to get help,” says Colin , 8th grade student at MVRMS. Mr. Parks later said “I think my grades have suffered because of the lack of study halls”. Other students also have a problem with the absence of study halls. An 8th grade student, Sam, said when asked about not having study halls responded with “ I hate it,” and later said, “As an 8th grader I got a lot of homework which I have to do at home which can be stressful.” However not every student enjoyed having study hall. 8th grade student, Eddie said “In 5th grade I actively tried to get out of study hall because I would do nothing since I had nothing to do.” Eddie later said “I would use study halls now because the amount of homework we’ve been getting this year (in 8th grade)”. Some staff members of MVRMS have voiced differing opinions of study halls when compared to the majority of students. Ben Doren ,principal of MVRMS, said “I didn’t like study halls because they weren’t productive for students” and “We tried study halls for two years and it didn’t work; a small group of kids used study halls really really well; we had some kids who used it somewhat, and we had a big block of kids who misused them,” Mr. Doren also said, “The years we didn’t have study halls students grades seem to have benefitted from it.” Mrs. Boland , the health teacher who also ran a study hall for three years, also commented on this subject saying, “Kids who had work to do used the time productively; but last year out of 20 kids; only four or five were using the time they were given appropriately.” She added, “I couldn’t help students with homework as well as the subject teacher could, so I would be worried to give them the wrong answer.” The success study halls has varied from time and location. Such as in Jefferson-Morgan High School, a high school located in Jefferson, Pennsylvania, eighty-five percent of surveyed students of the school said they would use study hall to study, do homework, or catch up on class work; while in other schools such as MVRMS the amount of students using study halls to do homework and other forms of work is possibly a minority . Most students want study halls back for valid reasons and staff hesitates to make a study hall available for everyone for also valid reasons. Students can take full advantage of study halls or they can misuse the time they were given to do work; there is possibly no easy, right, or correct answer to the question “should study halls be brought back and are study halls effective and worth it.”
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