When asking my friend about her school schedule she always mentions study hall. She explains that the study hall gives her time to relax and take a break. This period is all about peace and focus.

Study hall is designed to give students a period to complete any school work. Having a period to just focus on school work would greatly benefit students. A study at Cantwell Sacred Heart of Mary High School in Montebello, California stated that they created a study hall and students’ GPA rose about half a point. This is one of the many great instances that make study hall efficient. 

Currently, West Boca High school does not offer a study hall. I would love to have one because it would make my schedule less stressful. Students go home from a 7-8 hour school day to spend around 4+ hours on homework. Many teens have clubs, jobs, or extra curricular activities to do after school and with that, homework can get in the way. After getting home from those activities, it’s already 5pm or later and your evening has shrunk immensely. Teens can’t balance their schedule and it ends up with them being overworked/overstimulated. Once I get home, I most definitely do not want to do homework after sitting in my classes for an hour and 45 minutes each. Personally, after taking free time for myself it’s already 5pm and I still need to eat, shower etc. Having a study hall in this situation would greatly benefit students with actually completing their homework in a healthy balanced way. 

If West Boca were to implement a study hall period, the class would need a certain amount of graduation requirements finished. The requirements could be along the lines of a specific amount of community service hours, a certain amount of credits completed, and be in good standing. Also, this period doesn’t have to be extremely long. Shortening classes by five to ten minutes would give students a 70 minute study hall. 

I asked a few of my friends how they feel about a study hall at West Boca and their answers were in favor of adding a study hall. Sara, a close friend of mine, said that “I feel like I’d get a lot more work done compared to now. Another class adds a lot of stress but having a study hall period would be a perfect balance”. I then asked my brother who is a 9th grader at West Boca and he said “Having 7 periods unlike Juniors and Seniors who have their last periods off is a lot to handle without a break. A study hall acting like my junior/senior privilege would relieve the pressure that I have with all of my classes. I think it could be relaxful and make good use of spare time”. Even when talking to my classmates who also have junior privilege, they say it becomes difficult to be productive once they get home earlier.

Implementing a study hall would be very beneficial to students’ schedules!