By Alex Buettgen ’22

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Before the start of the 2018-2019 school year, the Strake Jesuit administration made the move from the common daily homeroom class to an advisory system that takes place twice a month during Community Time, another new addition to the schedule made before the start of that same school year. After a year of advisory, the administration has heard pleas from students (and some teachers) to bring back homeroom. Why is that? 

Although advisory periods are significantly less frequent than the everyday homeroom period, they are significantly longer, using up almost all of a student’s Community Time on that day. Students use Community Time to prepare for tests or quizzes they have later in the day, finish up homework they forgot to do the night before, get ahead of any classwork or homework due later in the week, or to just socialize with friends. On advisory days, students cannot do any of those things and are forced to sit in a classroom and listen to announcements.

If homeroom is brought back, students would be able to listen to the announcements and also get the Community Time to do whatever they need or want to do. This brings out the best of both worlds for both teachers and students.

Homeroom also helps the students form better long-term bonds with students in their own grade level. While advisory seeks to draw bonds with students in different grades, I feel as if it is more important for the students to make new or grow relationships with people in their own grade level. Though advisory tries to keep the consistency of each advisory, the arrival of freshman and the departing of seniors causes large changes in each advisory. Homeroom, however, keeps each class together for all four years, which really helps the bonding of the students. 

Homeroom and advisory both aim to do the same thing for students, but homeroom provides more time for students to really enjoy their time at Jesuit.