McCallion
Quest
Is this really preparation to high school?
by: Natalie Jaworski, Editor
On Thursday, February 24th, 2005, all students at Hazel McCallion received some “interesting” news. Mr. Jones announced at one of our assembly’s, that we’d be adopting a new system in our school. This new system did not get a great reaction from students, and it won’t get a great reaction from me.
Normally, when a student has to leave the classroom, they sign out on the pink sheets, indicating where they were headed, what time they left, and when they returned. This system is time consuming, but necessary, I can’t blame the office for wanting to be sure of where students are at all times. Times when vandalism occurs in the washroom, or when things go missing from lockers or classrooms, need to be monitored. However, I fail to see the wisdom behind the school deciding that we should write down the EXACT same information in our very own student agendas.
At the back of the agendas there are some pages entitled “hallway passport.” They’re almost identical to the pink sheets and serve EXACTLY the same purpose. Students now have the pleasure or should I say responsibility of signing out on both sheets. Lucky us, we get a teacher to sign the hallway passport and we now enjoy the luxury of bringing our agendas to the bathroom with us!
Technically, we are writing down the same information twice and wasting even more time signing in and signing out. This time could be crucial as it could give us enough time to mess ourselves if our need was that urgent. In other words, the whole hallway passport idea and the double signing out is absolutely pointless. We are wasting our time and our teacher’s time.
However, there may be a bonus feature to all of this. This new rule could actually increase our creative thinking abilities. Thinking about the best place and position to place our agendas when we’re in the washroom is a challenge. I do understand where the school is coming from with this. They want to make sure that every student in the halls has permission to be there, but wouldn’t a nice, portable hall pass be much easier?
Also, the school announced that every mark we receive would have to be recorded in our agendas. And if it so happens that we get called down to the office, get our agendas checked and they see that we have all of our marks, we’ll get a prize. A prize? How clever. Maybe we’ll get a bouncy ball! Or even better a LOLLYPOP!
The biggest problem with these new rules is not the purpose behind them. I can see the reasoning. The problem that occurs is the perception of the students that the administration is babying us. We’re grade 8’s. We’ll be going off to high school in a few months and everything will change. The teachers here at Hazel McCallion love to remind us almost every single day that we should start getting prepared for the future. But how do these actions that the administration are taking helping us get prepared to face the independence and self direction required at high school? They certainly don’t prepare us for what awaits us next year. They teach us how to be completely dependant on our teachers and how, that if we aren’t model students, there will be penalties.
You can’t force someone to be organized and ethical, that’s a lesson that we have to learn on our own. As we grow older, we should be getting a little bit more freedom, and we should be trusted a bit more. In high school, no one will make sure that we meet the deadlines and no one will be chasing after us for our un-handed in work. And no one will care if we are wasting our time, losing our marks and, in general, falling apart. High schools let you learn it the hard way.
So instead of telling us how much harder everything will be next year, and instead of telling us how no one will look after us as much, why don’t we just start to get a little respect and freedom? Show us what it’ll be like and maybe next year won’t be the impending doom that we are led to expect. We should be trusted to go to the washroom, or to hand in our work. So if the school’s looking for a better idea than numerous sign-out sheets, I’ve got one. Stop treating us like 6 year-olds.
Mr. Jones, Principal at Hazel McCallion responds.............
Natalie Jawoski has written a very perceptive article with some excellent points. I fully support many of her ideas, and I am sure that most of the students would be responsible enough to embrace the responsibilities she proposes. However, when it comes to health and safety issues and concerns, the school is responsible for 100% of its students, whether or not they wish to be responsible and "follow the rules".
I would like to address a couple of specific points. The reason for a hall pass of some sort (whether it be a portable one or thepassport page from the agenda) is to check that students in the hall are there for a purpose and not just wandering. Simply signing the pink clipboard sheet does not accomplish that. As you suggest, a portable hall pass could do the trick and we will investigate that as a possible solution. You may want to speak to Student Parliament Executive as they attend School Success meetings with staff and can raise student issues like the one you have written about.
Secondly, Natalie, I do understand that you are Grade 8's and should have opportunities to demonstrate responsibility. The new "rules" however, are for all students - Grade 6, 7 and 8 and we have a commitment to nurture and train our school community. Your suggestions are most appreciated and I look forward to hearing them discussed at future School Success meetings.
Mr. W. Jones