Post by Harley Scarow on Sept 27, 2007 13:29:26 GMT -5
I Eight Nothing Today!
By Peter Dang
Waiting in the school lunch room line, having to show your program card, barely ever being able to get a bite the moment you can get your meal. These are the poor characteristics of high school lunch, and it can only get worse as the day goes on. As a second year high school student, I have opened my mind to many of the negative areas of the school. This is concerning the eighth period lunch that some students have, but the staff members do not realize how this time period can negatively affect students. Students wait all that time for this lunch, and it closes down options.
For a start, even the entrance line is chocked full of students that are craving lunch. Many of these students are freshman, and they should not be required to go to lunch only when the lines are chocked full like this. Upon entering, you hear the stressed-out staff members picking out students and asking them to rush to the back of the line for so-called skipping others. Ironically, this usually happens to students whom do not skip, and they are forced to go to the back of the line, or go to the only other place in the school that is open—the library. As if it wasn’t already short for the other periods, but during eighth period lunch, the snack bar, which is the place for healthy foods, is closed after the first five minutes of entrance. The general healthy place in the food catering area, which is the sandwich bar, is closed from walking in! To add onto that, eighth period diners get “everything else,” or in other words, the leftovers. Lunch usually ends faster for the sake of cleanup, since eighth period lunch is the last for food. Students can’t even grab a beverage from the vending machine, because those are usually run out or shut off early.
This does not apply for only inside the lunchroom, but the general school. As this school has the extremely restrictive rule that permits students to only go certain areas during lunch period, many of these are shut down as well. For one thing, the Go-Store is closed, which leaves freshman at this time period for lunch at a huge disadvantage when it comes to getting the gym t-shirt that is required for getting full points. The Learning Center, which is a central hub for students to exchange information and utilize the school computers, is open in every lunch period except for eighth. The working papers room, which is usually more restrictive to lunch than any other period, is open in the same as the previous programs. This already shuts down many extracurricular activities, forcefully limiting these enrichment tricks until after school.
The general idea for this inconvenience can be spotted towards the freshmen that have lunch during this crippled period. All DeWitt Clinton High School students, as stated before, require a gym uniform in order to gain full points. The only time that the Go-Store is open is during lunch periods, and only during lunch periods. This limits students at this time to ask a friend whom has lunch at a different period to obtain one at that time instead. In middle school for many of these freshmen, dismissal after this school’s seventh period or a similar time is usually the dismissal time for their old schools. They are not used to being starved down to a late time such as this, and deserve at most, to have lunch at seventh period. The freshmen should not be welcomed everyday with leftovers. Even I myself have found many rotten and half-bitten apples in the fruit bin in the past—and I find that atrocious and disrespectful to the school and the students.
Generally, I am requesting not to eliminate eighth period lunch, but to improve its conditions. Let kids have two lines to wait on instead of the overcrowded waits. Open up the snack bar and sandwich bars, and at least allow these forced latecomers to have something healthy to eat. Extend this short lunch period by a few minutes to allow kids to eat when they finally get their food. Keep the lunch-restricted areas opened—keep the Go-Store, the Learning Center, and the working papers room opened. Most importantly, give the freshman a different time to eat. If the freshman are called freshman, give them a “fresh” lunch period to enjoy brief relaxation.
By Peter Dang
Waiting in the school lunch room line, having to show your program card, barely ever being able to get a bite the moment you can get your meal. These are the poor characteristics of high school lunch, and it can only get worse as the day goes on. As a second year high school student, I have opened my mind to many of the negative areas of the school. This is concerning the eighth period lunch that some students have, but the staff members do not realize how this time period can negatively affect students. Students wait all that time for this lunch, and it closes down options.
For a start, even the entrance line is chocked full of students that are craving lunch. Many of these students are freshman, and they should not be required to go to lunch only when the lines are chocked full like this. Upon entering, you hear the stressed-out staff members picking out students and asking them to rush to the back of the line for so-called skipping others. Ironically, this usually happens to students whom do not skip, and they are forced to go to the back of the line, or go to the only other place in the school that is open—the library. As if it wasn’t already short for the other periods, but during eighth period lunch, the snack bar, which is the place for healthy foods, is closed after the first five minutes of entrance. The general healthy place in the food catering area, which is the sandwich bar, is closed from walking in! To add onto that, eighth period diners get “everything else,” or in other words, the leftovers. Lunch usually ends faster for the sake of cleanup, since eighth period lunch is the last for food. Students can’t even grab a beverage from the vending machine, because those are usually run out or shut off early.
This does not apply for only inside the lunchroom, but the general school. As this school has the extremely restrictive rule that permits students to only go certain areas during lunch period, many of these are shut down as well. For one thing, the Go-Store is closed, which leaves freshman at this time period for lunch at a huge disadvantage when it comes to getting the gym t-shirt that is required for getting full points. The Learning Center, which is a central hub for students to exchange information and utilize the school computers, is open in every lunch period except for eighth. The working papers room, which is usually more restrictive to lunch than any other period, is open in the same as the previous programs. This already shuts down many extracurricular activities, forcefully limiting these enrichment tricks until after school.
The general idea for this inconvenience can be spotted towards the freshmen that have lunch during this crippled period. All DeWitt Clinton High School students, as stated before, require a gym uniform in order to gain full points. The only time that the Go-Store is open is during lunch periods, and only during lunch periods. This limits students at this time to ask a friend whom has lunch at a different period to obtain one at that time instead. In middle school for many of these freshmen, dismissal after this school’s seventh period or a similar time is usually the dismissal time for their old schools. They are not used to being starved down to a late time such as this, and deserve at most, to have lunch at seventh period. The freshmen should not be welcomed everyday with leftovers. Even I myself have found many rotten and half-bitten apples in the fruit bin in the past—and I find that atrocious and disrespectful to the school and the students.
Generally, I am requesting not to eliminate eighth period lunch, but to improve its conditions. Let kids have two lines to wait on instead of the overcrowded waits. Open up the snack bar and sandwich bars, and at least allow these forced latecomers to have something healthy to eat. Extend this short lunch period by a few minutes to allow kids to eat when they finally get their food. Keep the lunch-restricted areas opened—keep the Go-Store, the Learning Center, and the working papers room opened. Most importantly, give the freshman a different time to eat. If the freshman are called freshman, give them a “fresh” lunch period to enjoy brief relaxation.