Are study halls beneficial to students?

        by Hannah Fischer

 

 

        We have been told that next year there will be no study halls offered to students. The idea behind removing the study halls from student’s schedules is that many students who take study halls use them to socialize instead of working on homework or making up tests. Our administration has decided that students’ time could be better used in electives or in courses such as College Preparedness, but are these classes more beneficial than study halls?

 

        Students receive at least two hours of homework a night. Personally, I receive about 1-2 hours of History homework, 1-1 ½ hours of Math homework, and a ½ hour of English homework. That total ranges from 2 ½ to 4 hours’ worth of homework a night. That work load almost doubles when I am assigned an essay in either English or History, as each assigned essay takes at least 2 hours to complete, and is often due within three days of being assigned. Adding to the stress, assigned research papers can take up to 12 hours to complete, and are often due within 2-3 week time frame. Also during this small amount of time, we need to complete a rough draft and a final copy, as well as prewrite or create any notecards associated with our paper. This makes the total time spent on homework 6 ½ - 10 hours a week.

 

        Students are already getting 8 hours a day, or 40 hours a week of school time. On top of the assigned homework, students are expected to get volunteer hours, work part time, participate in school sports or activities, read books from the ‘100 Books Colleges Expect Their Students to Have Read’ list, maintain social relations, help their parents with chores, and get 8-9 hours of sleep each night. An estimate of the time taken for each activity within a single week would be at least 2 hours of volunteer work, at least 8 hours of regular part-time work, about 15 hours of school related activities, 4 hours of reading, around 7-9 hours being with friends and family, 7 hours of chores, and 64 hours of sleep. That brings the grand total of expected extracurricular activities to 107 hours. A student's work week is about 153 ½ hours. The total number of hours in a week is 168, leaving students with 14 ½ leisure hours a week, or around 2 hours a day during which students can do activities such as eating and studying to supplement their class room experience.

 

        When study halls are used correctly, they can help alleviate some of the stress caused by everyday activities. Study halls allow students to catch up on work, make up tests, talk to teachers, and get help from their peers. Study halls are meant to benefit the students’ mental health as well as their academic health. Study halls allow students to catch up on missing work or work that they have missed due to absences or early dismissals. Although some students use study halls for socializing instead of studying, if the study hall helps one student out of five, isn’t it worth it? Allowing students some relief from the stress of schoolwork with a study hall can lead to improved mental health and; therefore, it can improve the grades of students.

 

        Study halls are an integral part of student life, and the discontinuation of them is both frustrating and sad. Students need study halls in order to complete any work that they were unable to complete at home. Students need study halls in order to get any extra help that they need from their peers or their teachers. Students need study halls in order to do online research that they can’t do at home. Students need study halls in order to complete everything they need to on time and correctly. Students need study halls in order to succeed. Taking away a study hall is taking away an opportunity for success.