Written by: Ashleigh Kitchens
As I'm sure you know by now, Dr. Ramirez, has laid down a new rule for Coile Middle School. Fun Friday will only be held once a month for all Coile students. There are many things wrong with this new policy….
To be fair, Dr. Ramirez does not want students to feel like they are in a prison. He thinks there are other ways that students can have this quality time to socialize and interact with their friends.
He said he has "seen other schools use rewards such as guest speakers or performances as a reward." I think most of us would agree these types of rewards would be of great interest to a few of our students. However this takes a lot of planning and time to organize these events. Who would take on this extra responsibility?
He also suggests that students should be engaging with each other in the classroom. He stated, "It is critically important for students to engage with each other. I want to see teachers guiding students in the learning process where they are engaging with each other." This might sound like it's great for students but from a student perspective, very rarely are you engaging with your friends and you are not engaging in anything that you really want to engage in.
Dr. Ramirez has the idea that came from a student to sit wherever you want in the cafeteria on Fridays instead of fun Friday. This poses some issues, though. If students sit wherever on Fridays it would be mayhem. This chaos could also lead to students losing the performance/other activity. Yes, sitting where you want is nice and leads to students socializing more, it also leads to too much socializing. Not all students are the same and some actually like/prefer the quiet over the loud cafeteria.
We as eighth graders have looked forward to fun Friday being every Friday. When we were in the 7th and 6th grade we’ve always complained about the 8th graders getting it every Friday. Looking forward to it, it gave us something to be happy about when we reach 8th grade. Instead of seeing harder work and more homework, we saw more freedom and chances to get to do what we wanted more often. Getting fun Friday every Friday is a way better option because it’s flexible. Can’t go out because it rained? We have it next week! Can’t go out because too many people had a disregard for the rules? We have it next week! It’s a whole lot easier to change your behavior in a month rather than a week. So, people feel more pressured to do better if they only have a week until a reward, but if the reward is once a month then they feel less obligated to follow rules.