Sixth Grade Morning Privileges

All sixth graders at St. John’s deal with one concrete truth: seven hours of work, five days a week, 45 minutes of break. We used to be able to have time in the morning to talk before classes started. The seventh and eighth graders still get that chance — but we got morning privileges taken away without warning for being too loud.

Losing morning privileges causes us to become more stressed, which makes us less well-behaved in class. Not having morning privileges affects our parents by complicating morning activities. Lastly, having less free time will cause less motivated or well behaved students. I know that I’m not the only one who is affected by this, because most of the sixth graders also want morning privileges back. Motivated by socializing, sixth graders are now discouraged from enjoying school.

When students don’t have the time to socialize in the morning, teachers are also affected. Having time in the morning to socialize gives us a good start to the morning. We become less stressed, and the homework, tests, quizzes, and classwork coming up become less pressing for a short period of time. With a short break in our daily lives, we are more focused during class.

Recently, I was stressed because I had a French quiz coming up that I really needed to study for. During my classes I could not focus, because all I was thinking about was how my weekend was going to be spent doing homework and studying. This caused me to be less prepared for the French test because I could not focus during the French lesson. The lack of breaks during school did not relieve my stress and as a result, I could not focus.

According to an Edutopia article titled “Longer Recess, Stronger Child Development,” children learn social skills through real-life scenarios. To learn effective social skills, children need plenty of opportunities to freely engage with other children. When schools make space for free play in a natural environment, students are left to their own devices to build, create, and problem solve  — and the benefits continue once they are back in the classroom.

I used to look forward to school due to the time to socialize with my friends in the morning; now I dread school. All there is to do at school is work, and we only have 45 minutes to socialize. It wouldn’t hurt to give us 15 more minutes in the morning like we used to have, and like the seventh and eighth graders have now. Giving us morning privileges back will help us with our social skills, make parents’ jobs to get us to school easier, and will improve our motivation in school.