By Carrianne Thomas
The Oriole
Quincy HS
1st Place Division 4, News Writing
Editorial
JUDGING CRITERIA
- Topic relevant to interests and/or welfare of school or students
- Wins reader interest with impelling lead
- Presents evidence/interpretation in logical sequence
- States issue; uses effective examples, facts, and comparisons to clarify
- Deals with specific issue: avoids preaching, rhetoric, and cliches
- Shows sufficient thought and research
- Sentences, paragraphs of varied length; written clearly, concisely and vividly
- Proper diction/grammar
When our old PA system died a few months ago, so did the bells that signaled the passing of our classes. And you know what? We learned to live without the bells, and we kind of liked it, so let the system of using bells ‘rest in peace.’
Through the last three months of school we’ve been going on our own time. We learned to watch the clock and be responsible for getting to class on time. Teachers also indicate there were fewer tardies without the bell system.
Maybe the students and staff would be better off without the bells.
It was definitely more peaceful to start and end classes when the clock and the teacher indicated it was time to do so. If the teacher needed an extra moment to wrap a lesson up, it was okay. It was also okay to be released when the lesson was over even if it was a moment before the other classes.
It was also a nice taste of the real world.
When we go to college there won’t be bells and when we are in the workplace. We will need to arrive at work without a bell signaling our arrival and departure. We would like to propose continuing on a system without bells. Let the bell system rest in peace with the old PA system.
The new bell system has been also been unsettling in a number of ways. The initial bell sounded like a bad recording of an “old school” bell. Then there was the one that sounded more like a chair screeching across the floor than a bell welcoming us to class.
For a new system, the sound effects don’t seem too modern. We are thankful that the original sound has been replaced, although the new sound reminds us more of a doorbell than a passing bell.
If we have to have bells, we need to choose sounds to match the urgency of the situation. The other day we were supposed to go into an unannounced lockdown drill. The “bell” that sounded and the announcement that followed were so subtle that more than one class failed to realize that it was a “lockdown.”
On the same day, a piercing siren
had students and teachers
jumping when it was sounded. The announcement that followed was that there was a meeting being held during lunch. We should not be startled for a simple announcement and not be warned clearly in the case of a possible serious situation.
The urgency of the message needs to match the signal selected to precede it. Something like a siren should only be used when announcing something alarming like a fire, tornado, security issue, or other emergency.
Also, while it is nice to have a PA to use for emergency announcements, we sure liked not having our classes interrupted by random announcements, and we are definitely in support of continuing to have our
seminar teachers read the announcements instead of having to listen to them over the PA.
We like that the teachers can read only the announcements that are relevant to the students who are in that seminar. For example, the freshman seminars don’t need to hear that the seniors need to turn in senior pictures to the yearbook staff.
However, we need teachers to make sure they share the announcements. In several classes they aren’t being read or posted so we are missing meetings and important information.
Another adjustment that needs to be made in connection with the new PA system is that the clocks all need to be in sync. Without the clocks being in sync, there is no way to know for sure if we’re late or not until we hear the late bell and by then we are already tardy. Up to a five minute difference exists between the clocks in the different parts of the school.
When going to work or college we won’t have a bell telling us to go to a meeting or our next class. In every day life we won’t have a doorbell telling us to move from one place to the next. So let’s go back to not having bells.
It is advantageous to know how to tell time on a normal clock and learn time management. It was also a lot more peaceful.
While we agree that it is good to have a system for making school-wide announcements, we can live without the bells. We don’t need to live and die by a bell, so RIP bell system– you seem to be a system “gone bad” and we don’t want or need you anymore.