An Ode to Study Hall

During 9th and 10th grade at my high school, study hall was generally a dreaded space on one’s schedule. By 11th grade (although I think this has since changed) students were allowed to leave campus, so study hall meant you could go home and watch TV, go to a friend’s house and play water basketball in his pool (thanks Zach), or make-out with your girlfriend in your car, or a whole manner of other things. A first period study hall was money-getting to sleep in, and, if you didn’t play sports, an 8th hour study hall meant you got to go home early (or to work, not as exciting). But, in 9th and 10th grade, it meant going to the cafeteria or the study hall room and sitting in silence for an hour doing your homework or if you didn’t have homework or were a bad student-sleep. In ninth grade I had a full schedule, and in 10th grade I had an almost full schedule, but was taking radio class, so got a pass to go to the radio lab. If that didn’t work, I was in an extended learning program (ELP), so I could get a pass and go hang out in the ELP classroom. Luckily, I seldom experienced study hall. But, from what taste I got, it wasn’t all that bad, just a good time to get homework done.

In observing the general scheme of things at Líverpool High School, I’ve come to realize what wonderful thing study hall is. The high school I worked at in Puerto Viejo (my old site) was a ‘technical’ high school, and part of that meant that all students had full schedules (unless their teacher hadn’t been hired yet-a sadly common occurrence). At the night school in Puerto Viejo, the students didn’t have full schedules, because it wasn’t a technical school, but also because many students were only taking a few courses they had failed the year before--kind of the nature of a night school. Luckily, though, most of the students spent their free time at the snack shop or in the woods smoking marijuana. Either way, they weren’t causing too many problems. As Costa Rican classrooms are open air, occasionally the chatter at the snack shop would get a bit loud, but nothing more.

This is not the case at the high school here in Líverpool. All students have free periods in their schedules (the nature of ‘academic’ high school) and they tend to one of two things with their free periods. If they live close by, they just go home. Yet, if they ride the bus, or don’t live too close, they stick around the high school. There are some benches and tables where they sit, but there’s no study hall room. There’s no assigned classroom or area where they are all supposed to congregate. So, naturally, as adolescents are wont to do, they try to hang out with their friends. That the friends are in class doesn’t seem to be a problem. They’ll peek through the window, send text messages, come to the door and ask the teacher ‘can you give me Pablo for a minute’, or in what I find the most entertaining, simply barge in with a loud ‘EXCUSE ME’ and go to their friend’s desk and start whispering.

Additionally, kids constantly see their friends peek through the window or get a text-and then ask to go to the bathroom or drink some water, and then are gone for twenty minutes. The English classroom is maybe 15 feet (4.6 meters) from the bathroom and just a few steps from a sink-so usually I give the kids a time limit for their trips if I happen to be temporarily in charge of the class. Nonetheless, kids think nothing of walking straight the other way just after asking to go to the bathroom. As I mentioned, at least in the high school’s I’ve seen, classrooms here are open air-meaning either holes in the wall pattern, or a significant wire mesh pattern for the top three or four feet of the wall. So, even if the kids walking around aren’t directly interrupting class, their yells and hollers are. Of course, at West Des Moines Valley High School, all the classrooms have thick sound resistant walls-where it doesn’t matter-as the halls are silent-everyone’s in study hall. 

I can say one thing, I can’t really blame these kids-if I was supposed to be learning about the different forms of conjugating verbs in the past tense and my girlfriend was sitting outside the class asking me to come hang out-my mind would be anywhere but on some verb worksheet. Learning is definitely affected by major factors like quality teachers, adequate infrastructure, student attendance, appropriate materials, etc. but, when many of those needs are met, it’s the little things that seem (at least to me) to make a big difference. Part of the solution is of course more engaging classroom activities and better classroom management; yet, another part of the solution should be to eliminate the distractions and excuses. Thus, I find myself pining for study hall.

I certainly understand that it would mean having a free classroom and paying a staff member to make the study hall possible, and whether this is feasible within the Education Ministry's budget and regulations is beyond my ken, but that doesn't mean I can't wish :)