By BRENDAN HALL
With the introduction of the new tutoring Lunch +, the school is enforcing a policy of trying to cram knowledge down the throats of students. Although a noble idea, the new system of assigning Algebra 1 students to lunch detention for not completing their homework is an idealistic process that is actually driving a wedge between the student and the teacher while having little impact or benefit.
The program is meant to provide Algebra 1 students who forget or choose not to do their homework with a place to finish it and have help available if they don’t understand the assignment. National Honor Society tutors are present during every lunch shift as they are required to tutor for at least two lunch shifts per quarter.
The problem with requiring students to attend Lunch + can be found in a clichéd but true ideology; a horse can be led to water, but it can’t be forced to drink. Most of the students who choose not to do their homework do not want any help, and forcing them in a small room with a tutor they want nothing to do with will only aggravate them and pit them against the system.
The issue lies in the attitudes of the students, not in their capability to do the work. The Math Center is a successful club because it caters to students who make the choice to better their learning and go out on their own time to find help. With the Math Center, students are taking the initiative and therefore get more out of it, whereas Lunch + students will rebel, just like any other person who is backed into a corner would; it is human nature.
The same goes for the tutors, members of NHS who are forced to be tutors. The most glaring problem with this concept is the fact that even though NHS members are considered to be the more academically successful portion of the school, not all of them are necessarily qualified to be tutors. If some of them struggled in math or have a hard time remembering the material, they could provide wrong information to the students who need help.
Also, the number of people involved in NHS far exceeds the tutors necessary for Lunch +; on multiple occasions, there have been twice as many tutors than individuals who need help. In scenarios like that, the program is simply wasting the time of both the Algebra 1 students and their tutors.
What is worse is that the administration just turns their cheek to the situation and continues to promote the fact that they are helping the students when in reality, the entire program is a facade. It is naïve for the school to think they can just throw NHS tutors who don’t want to be there in a room with students who don’t want to be there and that the Algebra 1 students will magically learn the material and do their homework. If the administration is really interested in and focused on helping the Algebra students, then the administrators who chaperone the program need to take more initiative making sure the students in need of tutoring don’t turn it into social time.
Lunch + is faulted all the way through; the way its carried out, the people it forces to be involved, every aspect of it is faulty. Although the idea may appear great on paper, in reality it is simply a waste of time.
If the teachers are really concerned about students in Algebra 1, they need to have personal conversations with them and instill the desire to better themselves in math and involve upperclassmen who actually want to help. And, quite simply, Lunch + is not the way to do it.