After returning from Thanksgiving break, honor roll seniors at Williston received a major reward for their hard work: no more study hall for the second trimester. Years of turning in your phone and being forced to sit at your desk for two hours are over.

Why sit in my room and do homework when I could walk to Dunkin Donuts and pick up a coffee?

The two hours at night that used to be study hall now can be used for anything. However, having this new-found freedom can be overwhelming.

The first thing my friends and I wanted to do was walk somewhere, anywhere, to leave the dorm. The feeling of being able to do what we wanted during the two hours that for years had been reserved for studying was strange.

Study hall during freshman year was the strictest by far. However, it got more relaxed as years went on. Even with the laid back rules, the need to leave the dorm and go out was overwhelming. I felt like if I didn’t go then I wasn’t utilizing the privilege I worked so hard for. But now procrastination is at an all-time high in my dorm. As if senioritis wasn’t distracting enough, having no study hall has added fuel to the fire.

I’m not saying that the absence of study hall is a bad thing. I think it’s a great policy, especially for seniors. We have to learn to be independent and to control our own study habits. After being locked up for two hours every night, I don’t think any of the seniors will go to college and do homework starting exactly at eight o’clock in the evening and continuing to work for the rest of the night. We should be learning better studying habits earlier on in our high school careers instead of only having at most two trimesters to really learn about time management.

From talking to boarders, especially four year seniors, I think we are burnt out and tired of the study hall routine. Senior boarding student Rosie Lacas says, “At this point… senior year you are sick of study hall when it comes to 8 p.m. you don’t want to study anymore.” Seniors in our dorm have learned to do homework earlier in the day so that we don’t have to do work later on at night because of this new privilege. No one wants to stay upstairs and do homework while the rest of the dorm watches a TV show together.

We are supposed to be learning about time management and how to control our work load, but I don’t think having strict rules for years and then having them all disappear at once is the best way to achieve this goal. Senior day student Brittany Collins says, “even though it is important to have time designated to study, you learn more by managing your own time.”

Brittany also adds, “Some people would rather work at a different time of the day.” Boarders can study whenever they please just like day students, but during study hall they have to sit in their rooms to do something productive. Sleeping isn’t allowed during study hall, even though it seems like a reasonable thing to spend time doing if homework has already been completed.

Seniors on honors are hopefully better at time management to begin with, but having no study hall is a new element to control. There is no one there to force you to sit and get work done. Not being forced to do work makes it a lot easier to become distracted.

Here’s a possible solution to this situation: there should be more of a transition between having typical study hall and no required evening study hours. The transition should start during the third trimester of junior year. That year is very important for grades and having a higher reward for being on honors might motivate people to work harder. If juniors who make honors earn the privilege of no study hall on Fridays with Saturday class or no study hall on Tuesdays nights, it might make everyone want to work harder. This would give students more time to figure out how to manage their own time management on a smaller scale and would also make the transition to being a senior with honors privileges.

Having just a few days off from study hall a week might make a transition to being a senior on honors easier and end up making senior year more productive. Giving juniors and seniors more chances to learn time management skills is more beneficial to their growth as independent learners.

You have to make mistakes to learn, and if you have a few long nights like I have- staying up until three a.m. finishing projects- you might learn not to procrastinate. I think that giving students a chance to figure out what they like and make mistakes will teach more about time management than being forced to sit in a room for two hours almost every night for over three years. Having more time to transition should make life easier when students become seniors on honors.