Administration has implemented two restrictive systems for students this school year: e-hall pass and Enriching Students. When the e-hall pass system was introduced, some students were vocal in their irritation about it. Despite generally negative opinions from the student body, Enriching Students was implemented for Falcon Time starting second semester. 

Instead of creating an e-hall pass to a teacher’s classroom for Falcon Time each day like first semester, a teacher now schedules Falcon Time locations for the entire next week on Fridays.

Administration may believe Enriching Students is a positive change. While it takes the scheduling responsibility away from students, it further limits their freedom. Any student can choose to enroll in AP or dual credit courses, but that same student is not trusted to decide where they will spend 37 minutes of their day. They can be trusted to lead clubs, play on varsity teams and travel out of the state and country for school trips, yet they can’t be trusted to manage less than an hour of time daily. 

One of the core values of the school is Ownership, per the SOAR acronym. If students are supposed to develop Ownership over their choices, limiting their flexibility is entirely counterproductive. 

An argument that could be made for the system is that it holds students accountable for their grades and Falcon Time attendance more than before. However, the decreased flexibility of this system will be more harmful academically overall, as it is harder to go to different teachers for help. 

If administration wants to help students grow academically, they need to reconsider the use of Enriching Students. Students deserve flexibility to make decisions based on what happens each day. Administration needs to trust that students are capable of taking Ownership of their personal success.