And now it’s time for the joke of the day! What’s long, ineffective and heard all around the school? It’s the school bulletin!
Actually, it’s really not funny, because those five minutes at the beginning of 4th period are NOT heard around the school. Rampage conducted a poll from Nov. 7-14 to get students’ perspectives, receiving responses from 117 students. 80% of students have trouble hearing the bulletin or miss parts of the bulletin. 35% don’t listen to the bulletin or don’t know that there’s a bulletin at all. For the other 65%, the bulletin is the five irksome minutes in which information on school deadlines, college admission meetings, dances, school events, clubs and Honors courses are missed. Something needs to change.
I can still recall the brisk pace of spring, when we students were hard at work applying for next year’s athletics programs and Honors and AP classes. But I especially remember the frustration of listening at the edge of my seat for an announcement of a mandatory meeting or tryout that could determine my future. And I remember missing that announcement because my peers were too loud. I panicked. Did my friend hear it? No. Did the teacher hear it? Nope. So I had to drag myself to the crowded Rm. 311 and find the bulletin myself, awkwardly placed beside the door so that I was holding up traffic in the process. If you’ve ever been in that situation, you understand the primal urge to stand up and yell at the muffled voice coming through the speaker, “Can you repeat that?”
Unlike the muffled voice, the solution is clear. The bulletin has to be accessible. That means timely e-mail reminders to students and parents instead of a tiny link on the inconvenient Edline page. That means posting the bulletin around the school, instead of just in the cramped Rm. 311 and the office hallway and having teachers quiet the class instead of allowing chaotic din. Every. Day. That means you don’t have to be Dumbo the Flying Elephant to hear every word.
For the students who don’t listen to the bulletin anyway, this would be a great opportunity to get them involved. For the students who do listen, it’d save them the frustration of missing a few seconds of valuable news. And for the school, it’d be a step toward creating a more informed student body.