You might have heard that this year, all freshmen are required to take an advisory course.  Advisory is a semester-long course that uses a curriculum by School Connect, a program that aims to teach students academic, Social Emotional Learning (SEL), and life skills. While some might say the freshmen are lucky to get what many see as a free period, I would disagree.

In my Advisory, we fill out worksheets, go through PowerPoints, and watch videos on a range of topics. Some examples of lessons we’ve done recently are learning about bullying, active listening, how to give presentations, and how to make a first impression. Sometimes we get a bit of study hall time, but only as much as you get in every other class. On some days, we spend time watching videos about how to be your best self. 

Many freshmen students are taking all of their gym, art, health, and music credits this year and don’t have much room to take electives of their choosing. However, it is nearly impossible to take classes you want to take because Advisory takes up an entire semester. I know of quite a few people who aren’t happy with this but still want to get all of their requirements out of the way, so they didn’t change their schedule. For others, including myself, Advisory is just taking up another chunk of time that I could be using for my other gym credit.

While Advisory does teach habits for a successful life, school, and emotional skills, as well as give freshmen a slightly easier class, many of these lessons aren’t really necessary and should be shortened. This would allow for more study hall time in class so freshmen could catch up in their classes to help ease their transition into high school.

Ultimately, Advisory isn’t the best idea for a required class, since it just gives more work to already busy people. However, it does teach useful skills, so it should be kept, but not as a required class.