A recent addition to the school’s standards has impacted the routines of numerous clubs. The administration has announced that club meetings will no longer be allowed to occur during Patriot Period. This has caused some frustration with club members and owners. When interviewing the founder of the Red Cross Club on the subject, sophomore Sarah Murphy did not approve of the rule.
“I think that we should be able to have club meetings during Patriot Period because clubs are academic activities,” Murphy said.
The reasoning behind this new rule is that administrators want students to focus on getting work done during Patriot Period. My Patriot Periods usually consist of meeting up with friends and finding somewhere to sit down and talk. Other than the occasional times that I don’t finish homework or if I have to meet with a teacher to make up a test or quiz, I will not be doing work during that time period. I know for a fact that quite a lot of people use their time similarly during their Patriot Periods. When I had club meetings during this time, it was not an inconvenience to me getting work done.
Lots of people also participate in extracurricular activities after school which can affect their ability to attend the club. School sports and other club/recreational sports generally take place after school, however clubs will now occur then as well. The amount of people that participate in clubs could be affected by this rule, because less people will have time to come to the meetings. I liked the fact that meeting during school did not interfere with other things I had after school.
Patriot Period can be productive if you do have to get work done, but it can also be the easiest way of getting a big group of people to meet together for a club. I do not agree with this new rule because I do not think that club meetings will hinder people from getting work done. It is a good time for an organization with a lot of members who have conflicting schedules to have a guaranteed free session to meet.
With this new rule in place club officers/leaders are going to have a hard time getting everyone together in one place. I think this rule should be changed because clubs are school organizations so therefore they should be able to meet during school. Not being able to meet causes difficulty and does not make much sense to me. If the rule is not taken back, clubs will meet after school, but it will be more of a challenge to get everyone interested to attend.
