Highschool Should Be More Like Elementary School

by Rachel Powell

Do you remember back in Elementary school when there was comfortable seating, class parties, naptime, and recess? Well, what happened in between then and now that made all those things go away? We should bring them back.

Teachers say they have comfortable seating, naptime, class parties, and recess to motivate kids to come to school because elementary students are new to school. Well, high school students are sick of school, so they would appreciate some motivation other than “5 points extra credit.” 

Cdc.gov once said that recess is for “Improving (kids’) memory, attention, and concentration. Helping (kids) stay on-task in the classroom. Reducing disruptive behavior in the classroom. Improving (kids’)social and emotional development (e.g., learning how to share and negotiate).” Why shouldn’t that apply to high school students? If anything, these things should be more important to high-schoolers than elementary school students. 

We should have comfortable seating because we tend to focus better if we are happy and comfortable with where we are. We should also have nap time because it would improve the way we work. Our grades would sky rocket. We have to wake up at about 6:30 every morning, wear our brains out for six hours, then some of us have after school activities, then, to top it all off, once we finally get home we have another hour or so of homework. We don’t even know where to fit dinner into our schedule. If we had just an hour of relaxation and some time to calm down, everyone would be so much happier. 

If high school were more like elementary school, we would find that students' grades would be higher, students would be more engaged, and they would overall be a happier person.