Walking into class, one of Mr. Conor Cashman’s Sophomore students, carries an expression of fear and unease on their face. As they slowly approach Cashman’s desk they hurriedly admit they did not do the previous night’s homework. Cashman casts a malicious look at the student, throws his grade book and bellows “ZERO!”
While Cashman’s reaction might be the worst case scenario the generally accepted fact is when you don’t do your homework you will receive a 0 for the assignment. Ms. Lisa Pearson – the head of the new Homework committee- hopes to change this, as well as kids tendency to not complete their homework. “The whole purpose of this new detention is to mainly get Freshman and Sophomores on the right track with their homework and to give other students the chance to receive some credit for make-up homework” said Ms. Pearson.
This punishment won’t be for students who miss one homework every so often, but is more focused on repeat offenders. The homework detention system isn’t a school policy and teacher’s may use it at their own discretion. Not only is this intended to aid kids who tend to not complete their homework but also teachers who dually serve as coaches. If the teacher has to report to a meet, game or practice that day they can simply send their student down to homework detention to get help.
National Honor Society students or potential NHS inductees can also benefit from this new homework detention. Generally NHS students are required to have 20 volunteer hours and 20 leadership hours to be considered for induction; it is a also a requirement to stay in the club, By going to homework detention and tutoring students on the homework they have missed, they can obtain some of the hours needed. This is also beneficial to the student without the homework because not only are they being forced to get it done but with the additional tutoring they will gain a better knowledge of how to go about their assignments in the future.
While this new detention seems to be one set up for success there are still a few dangling questions. Currently without any NHS volunteers, Homework Detention ultimately serves the same purpose as normal detention with a shorter time. While the teacher heading the homework detention tries to the best of their ability to answer any questions students may have, the subject area may not be their area of expertise – leaving the students to fend for themselves. To more effectively handle this issue and to prevent kids from simply not doing their homework and daydreaming for the whole 25 minutes, NHS students are a necessity and need to be scheduled into future Homework Detentions. Though NHS students are all for this opportunity to get more hours, the homework committee is struggling with a way to organize this potential tutoring. Administrators of the NHS society welcome this as a great idea, but none of them have the time necessary to set up a schedule for Homework Detention tutoring, thus the homework committee is on the lookout for a student to organize this and in the end be able to put this impressive feat on their resume. Though their has been some talk of potential candidates to organize the schedule for NHS students, no one has been definitely assigned to this job.
Ms. Pearson has a committee of teachers ready to answer these dangling questions. “Myself and 12 other teacher’s are working to get this Homework Detention up and running smoothly” says Ms.Pearson. Ms. Pearson encourages NHS students to get involved in this new system and urges anyone who is interested in tutoring at Homework Detention to contact her with any questions or to set up a date.
This new system has already been greeted with approval and approbation from parents. Principal Alan Bernstein has received e-mails raving about how great this new system is and encouraging administration to set up these new detentions. With this encouraging feedback, Homework detention seems to be something that will help WHS students in the long run, however, it needs to get organized. With no money and no lone person stepping up to oversee the program, the sucess of Homework Detention relies soley on the participation of NHS students.
