Network staff speaks out:
Announcements
are a pivotal part of homeroom--or, well, they used to be. Until this
year, clubs and student organizations were allowed to make announcements over
the PA about meetings, events and fundraisers. However, that has all
changed.
Beginning
in August, Miss Elizabeth Kish, Head of School, decided to start enforcing a
rule that has been in effect for a long time but has never been acted
upon. This rule prevents students and faculty members from being able to
make announcements over the PA unless approved by both the club or activity
moderator. In doing this, Kish would like to promote more face-to-face
interaction and avoid announcements that target only small groups of students:
for example, clubs that only have 10-15 members.
Kish has some valid points
here. Face-to-face interaction is always good. But we’re in class
with our fellow students 7 hours and 15 minutes of every school day.
Therefore, student interaction is hardly a problem.
Preventing
announcements for clubs with small amounts of members has both pros and
cons. Of course, the club’s elected leaders could always send notes to
homerooms alerting members of upcoming meetings and events. This doesn’t help recruit new members to the
club, however. Also, clubs whose student participation levels used to be
high have been losing members because of this rule. A simple PA
announcement could change that - if only it were allowed.
And,
of course, all these reminders in homeroom and signs up on the walls use a lot
of paper. Trees can’t speak, so we need to speak for them. We could
really help out the environment if we simply utilized our PA system.
Although
Kish says she is not against using announcements every once in a while for big
student organizations that affect a lot of students, the guidelines are
obscure. Students still complain that they have not been allowed to make
announcements when they really needed to. Instead, clubs or organizations
with a lot of members have to take time out of their busy schedules to
photocopy 200 reminders to pass out in homeroom and there is still the issue of
whether the homeroom teacher gives them to the students or the students pick
them up. Some teachers are great about remembering to give students
reminders; some, on the other hand, aren’t.
Also,
how big is “big?” Is there a specific number of students the announcement
is targeting in order for it to be approved? This needs to be clarified,
because many students aren’t even trying to get PA announcements approved
because they think they’ll just be turned down.
PA
announcements are allowed for emergencies, such as last-minute changes in
meeting times that had previously been advertised, and for one kick-off
announcement for large events that pertain to most of the student body.
Homeroom
used to be thought of by many students as the time to get information that we
needed about events going on in and around school. Now, however, we
basically do nothing for 10 minutes. The teacher reads the bulletin, but
it doesn’t include very many student announcements and reminders because it
isn’t as easy as it seems to get an announcement into the bulletin. All
announcements must be submitted, typed, by 3 o’clock the day before the
bulletin comes out. Sometimes student
club leaders are so busy that this is difficult for them to do in the time
allotted, and then the news doesn’t get out to students.
Although
Kish’s weekly tips are fun and informative, her time on the PA almost seems to
be undermining all of the announcements that have been disallowed this
year. Many student-run events are just as, if not more important than
these tips, but they are being pushed aside.
Obviously
the student body is upset about the lack of announcements informing them of
student clubs and organizations. Homeroom is a time for information
- many other schools don’t even have homeroom in their schedules. So
here’s a suggestion: allow clubs and organizations to make PA announcements
in moderation (meaning set a definite number of announcements allowed for
each club or organization in a period of time) and make people happy.