Becoming an upperclassmen carries certain privileges, and possibly the best one is being able to go off campus for lunch.
From my own experience, I can say that it energizes me for the rest of the day and is extremely helpful. It offers the chance to take 30-40 minutes and reset myself after three long classes.
What I wonder, is why the privilege is restricted to juniors and seniors only?
I can understand the desire to keep freshmen on campus, as they lack driver’s licenses and are lesser in maturity. Sophomores are a different case. High school life is no new concept to them, and sophomores have their driver’s licenses.
As I mentioned before, there are many benefits to going off-campus for lunch, but another one is a chance to motivate students to do better.
Offering the opportunity to go off-campus to sophomores could also be an opportunity to improve their grades, by setting even stricter restrictions on them than on upperclassmen. Instead of having to pass all their classes, why not say they must attain a certain GPA until becoming a junior?
This could not only be an academic opportunity for the school, but an economical one as well. More sophomores will be inspired to pay for a parking pass earlier on, instead of waiting until their junior years.
In fairness there are cons as always, including an added liability with having another quarter of the school leaving and coming back to the campus. The potential for another class to be able to leave the school for 40 minutes during the day is certainly a risk. Having them in their cars as new drivers, rushing back to campus in time to make it to their 3 or 4 period are dangers.
I think this risk is mitigated by the fact that the sophomores will have to meet certain academic and disciplinary standards. I feel that because of that, that there will not be as great a risk.
I feel that the benefits outweigh the negatives in either case.
It is at least worth a discussion, no?
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