Advisory: Weighing the Benefits

An average day at Fair Grove High School begins with a 16 minute block of time called advisory. This is a period in which students sit in their first hour classes and are allowed to freely work on homework or other school related activities. Advisory happens on every day of the week excluding Wednesdays, where advisory is traded for a late start. Times similar to advisory are mirrored by other schools, with some times ranging from 30 minutes to an hour, and with some schools giving no time such as this at all.
Benefits of having a time like advisory are that students are actually allowed a time to quickly finish homework they may have forgot or were too lazy to finish. It´s also a very relaxing way to start a day, with the alternative being that kids would be thrown straight into their day. Some schools have entire class periods set aside for students to finish homework, as these times can be very beneficial for students taking more rigorous courses. In all honesty, an entire class period would be more helpful to many kids in Fair Grove, especially those taking harder classes that give out more homework and more difficult homework. Many students taking the more rigorous classes also take part in many extracurricular activities, which give them less time to complete assignments from school, which makes a simple 16 minute period nowhere near as helpful as it could be if expanded.
As helpful as an entire class period would be, the short 16 minutes allotted at Fair Grove High School is easily better than the no time at all that kids at other schools are forced to deal with. With no time at all being given, students would be much more likely to fall behind on homework. The time given for advisory is short, and in my opinion should definitely be expanded, but is still better than nothing and is extremely useful for students.