TABC’s Classroom Policies: Are They Doing More Bad Than Good?
Recently, TABC sent out an email to all faculty and parents, reiterating certain rules that TABC already has in place. The email, which has been criticized by many students, was sent out because the administration felt, as Mr P put it, that “the rules were not being followed.”
The email discusses a number of TABC’s rules, such as the school’s policy about phones, as well as the eating, in the classroom. TABC’s policy on phones is that any phone in sight of a teacher during class, regardless of whether the student is using the phone, “will be confiscated and kept in Mr. Poleyoff’s office for violations of this rule”. This rule is quite controversial, because a phone that is merely in sight of a teacher, such as placed on a desk, can be confiscated under this rule, even if a student was not using his phone.
Mr P believes that the rule, “promotes learning by taking away the distraction of vibrating and humming phones, which vibrate and hum after every notification they receive.” Yet, if a student is not using his cell phone and turns off the sound, he is not doing anything that inhibits his learning or the learning of his classmates, which is the entire reason behind the rule in the first place.
At TABC there is another policy that prohibits no eating in the classroom policy. In the handbook it says, “Under no conditions should food be brought into classrooms,“ meaning that students need to eat in the cafeterias exclusively. This is because, as Mr P explained, “eating in class makes a mess and all it does is encourage mice.”
This rule would work well in a perfect situation, but there are times during the day when student become extremely hungry and their hunger actually detracts from their learning. Sometimes, students don’t have lunch until a late time in the day and just making it to lunch is a significant challenge, therefore pushing students to stave off their hunger temporarily with a snack.
A students’ day starts with davening at 740 and breakfast ending at 845. Certain students do not have a break until lunch, which can be after 1 o’clock in the afternoon. The gap in between breakfast and lunch is a large one, with the hunger of students building over time. Additionally, the gap between lunch and dinner for a student can be a large one. With most students’ lunch periods ending before or around 1:45, the gap between dinner, which can be after 7 o’clock for many students is a large one also.
With students’ full schedules, the only time to have these snacks is in the classroom during class time. Therefore, students should be allowed to eat in certain classes depending on the time of day, possibly in periods 4 and 9, just to help them get through the day.
According to one TABC teacher, who requested anonymity, it is understandable that students get hungry, especially later in the day. However, she added, “if individual teachers allow students to eat in class, students need to commit to cleaning up their mess, because otherwise it falls to the teacher or the custodial staff, which is unfair and very rude.”
