By: Eliza Goldberg ’17

You’ve just finished first period, and you tiredly rub your eyes and prepare yourself for the walk to your next class. Only this one is not like your first; it is 30 minutes longer.
However, you aren’t upset because you remember that the first chunk of the class is spent watching a morning show video production put on by your peers. Perking up, you take your seat ready to watch, only to hear your teacher announce, “We’re going to review for a test. Take your materials out.”
According to the Staples Student and Parent Handbook, “The purpose of the Communication Time period is to create an informed school community, which fosters greater and more effective engagement in the overall life of Staples High School.” Unfortunately, teachers often seem to neglect this fact and ignore Communication Time altogether, starting class as soon as the clock strikes 8:35 a.m.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Communication Time is supposed to feature Good Morning Staples (GMS) which helps to promote “an informed school community.” However, on Wednesdays, and any other Communication Time period when GMS doesn’t air, teachers tend to drop the ball on adhering to Communication Time guidelines.
Ignoring Communication Time is especially violated by teachers teaching faster-paced classes, like Honors and A.P. Since these courses have a lot of content to cover, some teachers decide to teach during the entire 80 minutes.
This extra teaching time is unfair to the students in these classes, since the only classes that are legitimately allowed to ignore Communication Time are science classes (they need the extra time for labs).
School can be grueling. Eighty minutes is an extremely long time to have to pay attention, especially early in the morning. Since Staples has the special time slot in the morning, it’s only fair that it is used consistently and properly across the board.
If all non-science teachers agreed to use Communication Time appropriately, either with discussions or watching GMS, students would be more engaged during the 60 minutes of teaching as opposed to annoyed and distracted throughout all 80 minutes of class.
Ultimately teachers should use Communication Time for something other than regular class work. Communication Time is there for a reason, so we might as well use it in a way that makes the long class period most effective.