Study hall should not be a required course for students in 9th grade.

For the vast majority, freshmen don’t receive enough homework to justify needing a study hall.

Personally, I am in Honors English along with grade level Biology, History, and Algebra. Even with my additional electives this year, I only use an average of 30 minutes to (maximum) one hour in my study hall class. I could finish that all at home and not use a whole class period for it.

Freshman study hall also takes away opportunities for new students in high school to take other elective classes they’re interested in. This mandatory class takes away the chance to take other elective classes your freshman year — I’ve had to experience this throughout my freshman year so far. Other elective classes would give me credit as well as the chance to learn things I’m interested in.

There are options to get out of study hall, but students should be asked if they want to take a different class or if they feel it will be genuinely helpful for them, instead of having to go through the process of opting out. Some may not even know opting out was possible.

Study hall is a semester-long class that, from my experience and the experiences of my peers, hardly teaches students anything about planning and keeping high grades maintained. I’m not saying that this isn’t supposed to be part of the study hall curriculum, but for myself and some of my peers, study hall feels like a wasted block.

If study hall must be mandatory, we should at least be taught how to plan out our homework schedules as well as how to get and maintain good grades. This is the bare minimum for a required study hall block.

Study hall is also not worth any credit, meaning we are filling our time as freshmen with a non-credit course instead of learning new things and taking interesting classes. If students are encouraged to be focused on credit classes, we shouldn’t be required to take a class that fills a semester but doesn’t allow us to learn or have free time, such as an off block.

Study hall may be beneficial for certain freshmen, but it doesn’t make any sense to not allow others to easily opt out.