<p>"During the lunch period, students who are making poor grades are separated from their classmates and forced to eat in a separate location …</p>
<p>‘To me, it’s considered separation, because you have your special needs kids and the kids getting the good grades on one side, and the kids getting below an 80 on the other side,’ Morecroft said … ‘I call it a civil rights violation and segregation, no doubt’ …"</p>
<p>I’m wondering why they need to take up part of a lunch period which can be very short depending on lines and degree of crowding in lunchrooms? How much meaningful tutoring can be done in half a lunch period, especially if a student’s seriously behind and possibly hungry to boot?</p>
<p>Wouldn’t it be better to allocate tutoring time before and afterschool staffed by paid volunteer students and teachers? </p>
<p>Granted, the paid part is an ideal I know isn’t likely to be made into reality in practice.</p>
<p>If the lunch period is long enough (and at some schools it is at a full class period in length), this strategy makes a lot of sense. The kids who are in greatest need of help are there at the school. Scheduling tutoring outside of the regular school hours makes it much harder to guaranteed access to this kind of service.</p>
<p>Yes, transportation could be a problem before/after school.</p>
<p>BTW, don’t kids naturally segregate themselves anyway (aren’t the AP kids sitting with their friends–the other AP kids. Aren’t the jocks sitting with their teammates, etc.)?</p>
<p>Our school has before and after school academic help. Lunch period are very short–25 minutes or less.</p>
<p>My HS social circle ranged from a salutatorian and several Westinghouse semi-finalists who maxed out APs/advanced university courses to slackers who barely graduated with a D-level GPA. I was closer to the slackers GPAwise myself. </p>
<p>That’s not to say there weren’t folks like the jerky contingent within the top quarter of our class who would segregate themselves on perceived GPA/academic achievement bona-fides. However, my social group didn’t care either way.</p>
<p>Jocks are known to take AP classes. There was even a football player on the robotics team last year. In general, some self segregation may happen but none of the groups are wholly self contained.</p>
<p>D’s high school started a new lunch system. There is a single one hour (maybe longer) period. That’s right the entire school eats at the same time. It’s working beautifully. Kids can eat almost anywhere in school except where it’s posted no eating allowed. The lunch is loosely split into two little periods for planning reasons. A teacher may have office hours during one half on certain days. kids can go to the teacher then to ask questions or make up quizzes. Some clubs meet during lunch period now.</p>
<p>It has provided flexibility into the student’s schedule without forcing then to stay after school for help, make up work or clubs. It also puts the students in control rather than forcing them into groups as in the article.</p>
<p>My son’s school also has a single, hour-long lunch. Most (but not all) clubs meet during lunch, NHS students provide tutoring, and most teachers have an open door policy on certain days. THis really helps students who ride the bus be able to participate in many clubs and receive tutoring help. </p>
<p>On non-club days, my son usually goes to the library and gets some work finished or just hangs out with his friends and relaxes. I think the longer break helps them refocus for the afternoon.</p>
<p>Most of my friends in high school would have been in a different lunch hour had this been at my school. Many of my close friends did not graduate high school or, if they did, didn’t graduate on time. I think lunch is one of those times where you should be able to hang out with your friends and take a break from the day. </p>
<p>Do I think this is stupid? Yes. Do I think it’s a civil rights violation? No.</p>
<p>They are being separated so they could be provided extra teaching and help.</p>
<p>If people think that is a civil rights violation it explains why we can’t have nice things.</p>
<p>Of course instead of this we can try giving them a participation trophy for showing up to lunch and not providing extra help because it could hurt their feelings.</p>
<p>Our hs is doing a smartlunch. Lunch period is one hour divided into 2 half hour sections. Kids are assigned to eat lunch either 1st or 2nd. During the other 30 minutes they can study, go to tutoring, research in library, attend a club meeting, practice an instrument, or just socialize. Kids with a D or F in a subject must go to the tutoring once a week.<br>
Students really like it. Tutoring and clubs don’t conflict with afterschool activities or transportation issues. Classes are interrupted less frequently. If poorly implemented I could see how it could become what they are describing in the article.</p>
<p>I would be pretty embarrassed to not be able to eat with my friends because I was struggling with some of my classes. I preferred nobody knew that. I went to tutoring at lunch sometimes but the whole world didn’t have to know.</p>
<p>I think this school is doing whatever works to get the kids who need tutoring into a place where they can be tutored. Our school has short lunch periods, so that wouldn’t work, but every student has at least one study hall in his schedule per 6-day rotation, sometimes more, and the 45 minute period after school ends is when teachers have office hours. Sports practices start immediately after that, so nobody has to miss them.</p>
<p>There is quite a bit of crossover between groups. My son is a jock and an AP student. He is also on three different teams so has friends with varied interests. They socialize with each other.</p>
<p>I think kids need a break from school work and should be allowed to socialize and eat during lunch.</p>