It has bugged me for the past year and almost a half that I have been at Robinson on the traditional side that IB kids get to stay in their homerooms every club day. Why do traditional students have to go to every class and IB students get a whole day in their homeroom to do their work?

I know from playing a sport and wanting to get recognized by a college coach they want to see that you do something other than your sport. They want to see that you are involved at your school or that you are a leader of some sort and being a part of a club is the perfect way to do that. Being involved in a club will be a good resource for seniors to put on their college applications or resumes.

This year I am only in one club and that is because I didn’t want to miss any of my class periods that a teacher was teaching in or miss a test that a teacher decides to have on club day. This shouldn’t be my deciding factor on if I want to join a club or not. I would probably be in three or four, but I don’t want to miss anything and get behind. Again, why do traditional students have to go to every class and IB students get a whole day in their homeroom to do their work?

I am not stating that I’d rather stay in homeroom all day, but I think it should be enforced that teachers shouldn’t be-or even aren’t-allowed to give us traditional kids any new work. Some teachers completely ignore the fact that it is club day and still give tests, lessons or new assignments that you can’t miss without falling behind.

If you are interested in a club but you know that teacher gives a lot of work during that period, you probably won’t pick a club for that period. So, I do not think it is fair for the traditional kids to have to go to every class period to work and the IB kids get to sit in homeroom all day.

I’m not forgetting the fact that IB students tend to have a heavier work load than traditional kids, but if you are taking 3 AP classes, the rest honors classes, play a sport or two and want to be in a club, you could really use that one day a month to catch up on everything.

All in all, some traditional students do get a lot of work and want to either get ahead or back on track from being behind so I don’t think it is reasonable to give IB students a whole day to catch up while traditional students have to go to every class and do more work.