Should E&S Students be open to Study Hall

By: Jayden Colson

As the school year comes to the final stretch many students are creating their rosters for next year, and it leaves a thought in the mind of many students: Should they pack their rosters with unnecessarily hard classes because “that’s what's expected?”

There has always been pressure to succeed and go to college at E&S. One of the main focuses of the school is to send students to college. E&S has a 100% college acceptance rate and it’s a top magnet school in Philadelphia, winning the blue ribbon in 2008 and 2019. 

Applying for top classes is what is expected says freshman Jaylen, there is definitely a push to get kids to take AP and Honors classes, in some cases even a requirement by the time you graduate. “I felt that I needed to pick classes that would set me up in the future,” Jaylen said. “It's kind of the same when I applied for high schools—it’s just what my parents expected of me.

After being completely virtual freshman year it can be especially challenging for new sophomores coming into the building for the first time compared to normally coming in during their freshman year. Tesfabirhan thinks that he didn’t really value the importance of study hall especially with school being virtual. He says that coming from virtual to now is a complete tempo shift and study hall definitely helps.

“I didn’t really do anything in study hall, I just kinda sat there and chilled but as the year progressed I realized how much It helped with stress and providing a place where I can just chill and do work. A lot of my work would have been building up without study hall.” said Tesfabirhan.

Typically Junior year is a crucial year for high school, with Junior year being so challenging how can E&S students cut back on some of the stress. Junior Joaquin Sarasti Sandoval says that in his toughest year of high school what has really been helpful is study hall. He advises the upcoming juniors to take it.

“I think it’s helped a lot because it’s a period where I can get work done if I need to, it also relieves stress i'm having, and if I want to chill and relax i can.” said Joaquin.

High school can definitely get tough at times, and along the years students will begin to take harder and harder classes. So when high school starts to get tough it’s definitely beneficial to have something to lean back on like study hall the roster coordinator Joseph Schrieber thinks.

“I generally tell students to do it, what in they think would be their tougher years, when they have 1 to 2 AP and Honors classes I think that’s the perfect time to fit in a study hall.’ said Schrieber.

Carver definitely has an underlying culture of striving for excellence, but does that culture dwell on students of the school. Personally, student Tesfabirhan doesn’t think it does.

“I don't think the “culture” of the school really impacted me I kinda wanted to do my best and apply to the harder classes just because it’s what I want to do.” said Tesfabirhan

Going from middle school to high school can be a hard transition and you might not always know what to expect from yourself, it's a big step in your learning path and you may not know where you land compared to others. Freshman Jaylen says that he just tries his best to follow the crowd.

“I do think that going to E&S kind of makes it seem that you have to pick the top honors classes, I feel that’s what is expected of every student that attends E&S it’s kind of like following the crowd.” said Jaylen.

After spending a whole 4 years at E&S you will definitely have picked on some things. Jahseeki is a senior at E&S and with all his experience he thinks that a study hall would of definitely helped his high school journey.

“Study hall is very beneficial to my grades, I think that to catch up on the work I wouldn’t have been able to if I didn’t take study hall is helpful, so I think underclassmen should definitely take study hall." said Jahseeki.