Imagine yourself exhausted from all of your classes and work, tired midway through the day and in desperate need of a break. However, skipping a class for a break will only result in missing out on potentially key information, causing you to fall behind and adding even more stress to your school life. Could there be any solution for the dilemma of non-stop stress and exhaustion? The answer is simple: more registry. Instead of having it three days per week, reg should be implemented in Lowell’s schedule every day for 20 minutes.
Despite some students’ disliking of reg, it is absolutely an essential part of Lowell’s schedule, one that needs to take place every single day. It provides several benefits that would improve student happiness and the quality of education at Lowell.
Some may believe that reg is pointless and doesn’t provide any benefits to Lowell students as they aren’t actively doing anything. This is simply untrue because it provides both a relaxing break from Lowell’s pressure-filled environment and a place where students can study at their own pace. On top of this, as the only class that will remain the same throughout students’ four-year journey at Lowell, it also provides an opportunity to build a sense of community in the midst of a gigantic school environment.
Lowell famously provides a rigorous, stressful, and pressure-filled academic environment, and reg is a rare opportunity for students to just unwind and relax. However, if students simply need more time for studying, reg provides that opportunity as well. Just having a 20-minute calm period can significantly help student stress and anxiety. According to Innova Design Group, having a flexible environment, like reg, where students can study can help them feel more comfortable and increase focus while decreasing stress and anxiety. Overall, reg can be helpful to stressed students in multiple ways, and having two days without reg is simply not doing anything to change student stress levels.
According to Mainstream, the student-run news publication at Paint Branch High School in Montgomery County, Maryland, homeroom (similar to registry), provides students with calm mornings as they talk with classmates and finish assignments they were unable to finish at home. If students have study time in reg, they can be less stressed about work at home and throughout the school day. On top of this, if students are happier and less stressed, it will allow them to focus more in their various classes, improving the impact of lessons taught at Lowell as well.
Reg currently consists of many students sitting at their desks on their phones the entirety of the period, which has led to students holding negative views towards the period. However, this is an easily fixable issue: if reg teachers or the school implemented more reg activities, then students would socialize with one another more and it would result in a larger sense of community in various regs. This sense of community is extremely important, as students will be with the same people in their reg for the entirety of their time at Lowell. According to Wilbraham & Monson Academy, community in schools is extremely valuable because it helps students feel safe, secure, and supported. With a sense of community, reg could provide an invaluable period of sanctuary and genuine support.
Overall, reg is not only an essential part of Lowell’s schedule, but one that should absolutely be implemented every day. It provides time for relaxing from Lowell’s stressful environment, time for studying and completing unfinished work, socializing with friends, meeting new people, and building community. With a few tweaks to the structure of the period, reg could very well end up being one of the most important parts of Lowell students’ school life