Whether you call it advisory or home room, these classes have been around since our parents’ ages. However, the concept of advisory is often overlooked. The original reason why these classes were put in students’ schedules has since changed, or been tweaked in order to serve a better purpose. But is this purpose really being fulfilled?
Firstly, what is advisory? US News says that “advisory is the place where important subjects that aren’t in the academic curriculum can come up.” Essentially, advisory’s a place where students can talk to each other and to teachers about the struggles they may or may not be facing.
However, these advisory periods do not always go the way they are intended to. There are several challenges that make it hard to give sufficient time to each student to communicate their worries. Due to large class sizes, the small amount of time allotted to each class is not enough for each student to get valuable one-on-one time with the teacher. Furthermore, it is also difficult for students to speak up for themselves in the presence of so many classmates. Schools should focus on each individual student, not an entire class.
These advisory classes also take away from subjects in the curriculum, making it harder for students to learn the same amount of material in a shortened period or block. “I do not think advisory is beneficial because it just makes our more important classes shorter and we do not learn about beneficial topics,” says Francesca Miller, a ninth grader at BHWS.
Although advisory does take away time from core classes, some students believe that this break is needed, and that this time is a helpful way to do just that: take a break. “I like advisory because it allows me to finish homework or just take a break during the school day,” says Nimagni Mummaneni, a tenth grader at BWHS.
Advisory was put into place to help students learn about topics and issues within the school socially, but in reality, it is not being used that way. This being said, taking out the advisory period is not the way to solve this issue. Rather, making advisory more engaging and interactive will help students participate more and be better prepared for their future with skills that may not be in the academic curriculum.
In conclusion, while advisory is important to the students in order to give them a much-needed break, it does not fulfill the reason that it was instituted in the first place. School systems need to provide students with a more successful program that engages them more, instead of current advisory programs which don’t serve their intended purposes.
