One of the great things about Crofton High School is that students get a lot of free time. With the red and black blocks, they can be so useful for clubs, lunch, social interactions, and teacher support. Along with those free periods, we also have community wellness meetings. Community wellness is a homeroom type of class, but we learn and participate in many things that have made me question if it is truly necessary. 

The topic selection is the first issue. While I appreciate the coverage of bullying and conflict resolution, I also appreciated it last year, and the year before, and the year before that. My point being is that they tend to teach us the same lessons year after year. It can be extremely boring, especially considering that I have heard their same take on “kindness in the hallways” for about 3 years now. My main concern is that the student body won’t want to engage with the lessons because of their repetition. 

Shifting to the topics themselves, they are a second problem. Being in high school, it confuses me why we discuss such juvenile subject matters. It can be understandably conveyed that the school is trying to emphasize what they will and will not tolerate, but it isn’t very relevant. The repetition of bullying lessons is unnecessary on its own, but the even bigger plot hole is why we are talking about bullying in the first place. The primary focus should be on more significant matters that affect us in our daily lives, like the dangers of COVID-19, mental health realities and substance abuse. I strongly believe that the more students can relate and connect to the lessons, that they will be, as it has something to do with them and their lives. 

A huge dilemma with the community wellness block is not presenting information itself, but a lack thereof.  Along with more modern-day issues for high school students, the lessons should also cover announcements and events going on at the school. I can tell you that it certainly isn’t fun to show up to school on picture day looking crazy because no one told you when it was. Besides important school events or occasions, test days are also extremely important. My fellow students and I were very frustrated when we walked into the classroom and the teacher slapped a thick packet on our desks. We all had to find out about 20 minutes beforehand that we were having a standardized test. If this information was included earlier in advance in the community wellness lessons, it would be so much easier for students, and it would be a great way to utilize the period.

Although the lessons can be difficult to get through and can often miss key information that we need to know, I can appreciate and understand why the school put the wellness block in place. They created the block to enable students to feel safe at school while covering certain topics, which is admirable. But on the contrary, it is not much of a help when it comes to the same criteria being taught, and neglecting the importance of things that we experience around us every day.