Students should prioritize schedule for effectiveness Jaiden Herald Co-Editor-in-Chief
Every single day on the iPhone calendar is marked with a gray dot signaling something to do or somewhere to go. Planners are filled to the brim with club meetings, sports games and practices, community service, volunteer hours, family or friend obligations, chores, homework assignments and due dates. To-do lists are miles long and are realistically unmanageable. A student’s normal daily schedule can be scheduled down to the minute: club meeting before school, an eighthour school day, another club meeting after school, sports practice immediately after that meeting and a stack of assignments and homework to complete when finally arriving home. With numerous opportunities for involvement and activities to participate in, many students suffer from overextension. Everyone is trying to do everything and be everywhere at once. At some point everyone believes they are capable of doing it all and managing the mile long to-do lists. Students fail to realize that not only are they doing themselves a disservice, but, in addition, the clubs, activities, sports and school assignments suffer too. Just like a rubber band stretched too far, at some point, there will be a breaking point. No one can realistically keep up with an overcommitted schedule long term while still maintaining
giving one’s best effort to everything they do. Exhausted, busy, stressed, overwhelmed --- the trademark words of a student spread far too thin. Overextending oneself can lead to burnout, exhaustion and lack of interest. Overcommitment directly ties to negative mental and physical effects like stress and exhaustion. The never-ending grueling schedules become too much to handle and are overwhelming. In the midst of running back and forth between activities, skipping meals or sleep to compensate for time and grinding out the homework, assignments and test prep for the school week, students miss the detrimental effects that spreading themselves too thin has on themselves as well as how their work and commitments suffer. Overcommitment is a hard lesson to learn and an even harder one to accept, but at the end of the day, no one can do it all. Students: find your passion, find what you are good at, and put your energy there. Rather than trying to do it all, find where you best fit and devote yourself fully to that. Your commitments and involvements deserve your best self and your best work. When you are spread too thin, you are not helping anyone and there is no real gain. Not only are you hurting yourself, but you are failing to give your best to everyone and everything. Pick and choose. Find your priorities. Leave time in your schedule to go to a football game, eat dinner with your family or play catch with your dog. Not everyone needs to do everything. You are not letting anyone but yourself down when you spread yourself too thin. As students, we are pushed to do it all, but that is an unrealistic feat that is unmanageable. We do ourselves and our responsibilities a favor when we choose to prioritize and choose less instead of more.
Staff Editorial
In-class debates help build life skills As society is participating in “ignorant politics,” the meaning of having a civil discussion is becoming even more distorted. People cannot seem to have a disagreement CLASS without becoming offended. DISCUSSIONS The Booster staff has concluded that having class discusGIVE STUDENTS sions will help SHS students THE to counteract these societal OPPORTUNITY TO changes. USE AND Class discussions give stuEXERCISE SKILLS dents an opportunity to exercise skills that are not targeted THAT ARE NOT in other classes. In discussions, TARGETED students must properly preIN OTHER pare, deliver information, and CURRICULUM.” listen. Older generations have THE BOOSTER STAFF argued that our generation needs experience with these skills. This experience is gained during these discussions and referenced for future use. Additionally, these skills are used in jobs and are valuable to students. Students learn to manage social issues through discussions. Opinions become normalized and respectuful discussions are more likely to occur. The current political system does not have respectable discussions. As can be seen in every-day media, elected officials base their arguments on personal morals and half-truths instead of concrete facts and logic. At The Booster, we believe that this is wrong and that class discussions will aid students in participating in appropriate conversations. If students are actively engaging in class discussions, they are made aware of other perspectives, contarty to the majority of society. Despite the number of skill-based benefits of discussions, questions have been asked about the selection of these topics. Which topics do we talk about? Where do we draw the line between controversial topics? In what classes do we talk about them? We at The Booster conclude that discussion topics shoud be based on maturity and discussion skills. Discussions should occur in social studies and English courses because these classes are not always based on concrete facts but periodically based in interpretation. This is a major contrast to science and math courses. As a program faithful to the improvement of SHS, we at The Booster believe that teachers must incorporate discussions into their curriculum. Additionally, we believe that students should actively participate.This will change the attitude that people have about modern discussions and effectively change the way our student body presents itself. Opinion
September 2019
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