Advisory has officially been part of middle school life for five years, but some feel that it’s lost its purpose. The thirty minutes that are spent in advisory are thirty minutes that could be better spent on other activities according to eighth grader Chris Fodor. Advisory has declined from what it used to be, and has lost its effectiveness. “It just doesn’t have a sole purpose for anything for you to do,” explained Chris. Chris feels that advisory has lost its vision of what it should be, and that the idea of advisory needs to be revised.
The biggest issue for Chris is the lack of direction and ineffective use of time. “You just talk about others and just play games as an advisory,” he said. He feels that although playing games can be fun, advisory isn’t the place for them. He believes that the school could be harnessing those important first thirty minutes of the day better. “We could have been doing something a lot better and more productive in advisory than just talking and reflecting on our year,” he explained.
Chris believes that while the relationship between a student and their advisor is helpful in theory, in most cases it doesn’t make an impact on a student’s middle school career. “I can relate with my advisory any time and I can ask for help but, it’s just I don’t need it.” Chris explained that he knows that he can come to his advisor for help, but simply has never had to.
Advisory is the first activity in a student’s day, and Chris feels that there are better ways to begin school instead of advisory. “We could start the day in our class, our first block and have more break time or add more flex time at the end of the day,” he said. He believes that by shifting class time to start earlier, students could have longer breaks than they currently do. By having longer breaks, students would have more time to bond with people of their choosing, rather than a random group of students they were placed with.
Another alternative to advisory would be starting school later. Chris described advisory in his eyes as, “thirty minutes everyday at school that just wakes me up, or lets me sleep longer.” Studies have shown that schools start too early for adolescent students to work to their full potential, as they’re less productive earlier in the day, and need to sleep later into the morning. By taking away advisory time, students could be using the extra thirty minutes to get more sleep and be more productive in their academic classes.
Chris feels that for advisory to unlock its full potential, it needs to be more project based. “(It should be) more project driven, instead of just playing games,” explained Chris. “(For example); your choice project. That’s a great time to work in advisory because we don’t really have any other time besides home or Flex,” he said, referencing the eighth grade choice projects. Eighth graders currently only have two advisory periods a week to work on their projects. He thinks that students need to be given more time to work on projects, and that advisory time would be a great working period.
Chris believes that advisory in its current form has lost its importance within the middle school, and needs to be changed. “I don’t see it helping at all. There’s no purpose for it,” he said.
Opinion as told to Dom Alberts, Scroll Editor
