As the school year comes to an end, students are racking up the amount of lates they have been receiving. This increase in late arrivals unnecessarily punishes kids, forcing them to go to detention when they accumulate ten or more lates. Many of these lates do not come from being late to class, however, as many students who get to school between 8:06 and 8:09 are receiving these late notices. It is not fair that students who come to first period class on time are reprimanded for waking up a couple minutes late or getting stuck in traffic.
Homeroom, the way that it is currently run, is largely inefficient. One of the main purposes of homeroom is to inform students of the bulletin and events of the day. This designated purpose, however, is not carried out in homeroom as many teachers often don’t read the bulletin out loud. In addition, the bulletin is emailed to each student the night before, allowing these students access to the information without needing their advisor to give it to them. A “News of the Week” from students’ form deans are sent on Sunday as well, which outlines the important information for each upcoming week. This new and efficient way of getting important information to the students largely renders homeroom obsolete.
One of the main purposes of homeroom is to mark the attendances of the students. Homeroom advisors are supposed to take attendance every day and make sure that the people who are absent or late are marked correctly. However, some students have remarked that their advisors many times do not come to homeroom and instead they, themselves are responsible for marking their own attendance. This can create additional issues as students who are running a couple of minutes late can have their friends mark their attendance for them.
Because of these two reasons, it seems clear that homeroom serves little to no purpose in the EA community. A more reasonable solution to this would be getting rid of homerooms entirely. Attendance could be taken in first period classes, which would make sure that each student is on time. Additionally, students with first period frees could sign into the Upper School office to record their attendance. This solution would ensure that students are not unfairly given lates, yet still provide incentive to make sure students get to class on time.
Many students recognize the inefficiencies of homeroom. For example, Harry Pusey ‘19 says, “If classes still start at 8:09 then I’m fine with getting rid of homeroom. I primarily use the time to study.” In addition, Remy Peskin ‘19 believes that “homeroom does not really hold much of a purpose anymore.” She continues that “getting rid of homeroom would make my mornings a lot less stressful than trying to get to school exactly by 8:05 and risk getting detentions if I do not.”
Additionally, many other schools on the Main Line have made the switch to a no homeroom school day. The Haverford School, at least for the past 4 years, has had a no homeroom policy. Students arrive at school at 8:30 am and have their attendance taken in first period class. Another local school, Penn Charter, has had no homerooms for at least the past 15 years. Penn Charter’s students also have their attendance taken in first period classes. These schools’ attendance records have benefitted from having no homerooms as students are much more concerned with getting to school on time than they are with getting to homeroom on time.
Episcopal students’ testimonials and the actions of other Main Line schools affirm the already obvious. Homeroom at Episcopal puts additional pressure on students – in the form of disciplinary action – who are running a minute or two late but still get to class on time. This is why it is in the best interest of the Episcopal Academy Upper School student body to completely get rid of homerooms.