School

I think that one of the biggest problems at henry clay is its size. There are over two thousand people here at henry clay attending school not including the teachers and staff and our school is just too small to hold this many people. This is mainly seen in the hallways between classes, because there are so many people its hard to just get around the school without being shoved into the lockers every two minutes. Also people clog up the hallways so much and they are so narrow that one cannot get to class in enough time. I also think that school should have breaks between two classes or so for student to socialize. The only time we have now is before school if you get to class early, lunch which lasts for thirty or so minutes or after school. The five minutes between class is barely enough time to drop by your locker and walk to your next class. I think that if students had this break, it would allow for them to focus more when class is in session and build friendships between people they would not usually talk to, allowing the school to be more of a community.

Yep.

It'd definitely be the superficiality. That's the only thing that I seriously hate about high school, people being so concerned with others' outlook on them that they let their image define their personality, rather than their personality define their image. Image promotes competition and ferocity. Image promotes selfishness and laziness. Image promotes self ruination. It is one of the most overlooked concepts of our school, yet one of the most detrimental ones as well.

I've known people to ditch friends in order to promote popularity. I've also known people to do stupid things in order to gain the approval of other students, and seeing these actions is always one of the most disgusting things I can watch.

I'm not saying that physical image is a bad thing (in fact, I like being able to look at attractive girls when I please). I myself worry about my physical image; it's what keeps me healthy. But people allowing physical image to control their personalities is a seriously awful thing. I've known people to allow friendships to end because they didn't want others getting in the way of their popularity. I've known people to do cruel things to others to seek approval of the masses. What's worse is that these traits in people that are revolting in their own manners translate directly to the real world in terms of politics, business, etc.

I've seen surgeons refuse to take on surgeries because they knew that the patient would die and didn't want it to hurt their statistical reputation, and the same with lawyers refusing to defend clients. I really think that's about all I need to say about that.

The Dress Code

One of the biggest problems I've always found with Henry Clay is the dress code and the way the administration reacts to it. It seems that people are always breaking the dress code and getting away with offenses that actually have a good reason for being just that, an offense, and that the less reasonable, but more obvious, dress code regulations are the ones that are enforced more. A good 50% of the girls who wear skirts definitely break the "mid-thigh" rule we have, but how many of them get called out on it? I hardly see it happen. What makes it worse, is that that rule is in place for an understandable, practical reason. The "no hat" rule, on the other hand, I honestly just don't understand. Maybe it has something to do with hiding drugs or weapons in the hats but if there's any reasonable suspicion, would that warrant a search of the hat? Maybe it has something to do with gangs, but wouldn't it be fairly easy to spot one if a large in-group of people were wearing hats with similar designs? The dress code certainly needs some re-evaluation. Either enforce all of the rules, or get rid of the rules that aren't enforced well enough already.

What do with our school?

In my time at Henry Clay I've noticed many things that need to be changed. Most significantly, the school is massively overcrowded, which makes traversing the hallways a much bigger ordeal than it ought to be, especially at intersections. There are two solutions solutions to this problem. The first option is to simply move some of the students to another high school (or to build a whole new high school to house some of the population), which would reduce the number of people and make the school less crowded. The other (and, in my opinion, more effective) option is to install stop signs at the intersections, which would moderate traffic control and provide an outlet to delinquent teens upon which they can express their thoughts (such as "STOP war" or "don't STOP believing" or any of the other worthless messages that one finds spray-painted on the numerous stop signs in the city). But shenanigans aside, the population problem is a serious matter which must be dealt with. It has reached the point that the school has to use portable classrooms to house all of the students, which is a clear indicator that there are far more students in the school than there should be.

Problems

The first thing I would change about Henry Clay is parking. Parking is a major hassle in the mornings and trying to find a spot is nearly impossible if you arrive any later than 7:40. Most schools don't have this problem and actually have plenty of spaces for students and faculty. But apparently, Henry Clay has a problem with parking spaces and likes to make their students park in five different streets around the school, which not only makes the neighbors angry, but also the students who have to walk in the winter weather for five to ten minutes every morning.

The second problem with Henry Clay is the intercom system. For every other school, it is unheard of for the intercom system to come on during every class to call one or two people down to the attendance office. Instead, they just look up what class that student is in and then calls that classroom and asks the teacher to send them down. But Henry Clay insists on being as inefficient as possible and interrupts every class in the building just to get three students to come pick up a piece of paper they dipped in the hallway.

One Word: Change

I would love to see the change from petty homework assignments to homework that actually challenges me mentally. Kids cheat on their homework and other things because they do not want to take the little time out of their busy day to do it. No one is challenged by little worksheets or lameo assignments so they do not do them until the next day. And if they do not end up getting it done before the due date, they end up copying someone else's homework. The copying lends to students not actually learning the material and they end up forced to cram a day or two before a test. And if a student does not study for the test, they end up cheating on tests. It all stems from A) the laziness of students and B) the pettiness of the homework assignments they are given. If given the choice between playing video games, watching Glee, watching Kentucky play basketball, or doing their lame homework, almost all students are going to spend their time doing on of three besides homework. Students play video games because they find a challenge in doing so and are rewarded by gaining a level/beating the game. Students watch Glee because they would rather try to sing like Lea Michele then do an activity that takes 5 minutes to do. Students would rather watch the Kentucky game because there is always an element of surprise in the outcome; Kentucky might actually lose. The biggest change in Henry Clay need to be eliminating homework assignments that are boring, easy, and take very little time. With that one change, many of Henry Clay's troubles will be solved.

Changes

Of course I think that people should stop smoking in the bathrooms and that traffic jams in the hallways are too abundant. But the Henry Clay faculty presumably tries to stop these problems from occurring. Obviously, this has been to no avail, and I'm afraid that the students are doomed to these annoyances until we graduate our senior year. However, I think that some changes can be made to ensure a healthier school experience, particularly in the more rigorous classes. Primarily, I speak of making AP classes more AP-oriented. If these classes are designed to gauge the student's preparedness for college, then shouldn't they be more reflective of the college experience? AP courses shouldn't be about assigning six times more homework; it should be about letting the student exhibit his or her independence and learn the material themselves, with the teacher functioning as a catalyst. Two classes I can think of that really put the responsibility in the student's hands are Mr. Pope's AP U.S. History course and Mrs. Minor's AP Chemistry course. Most days, the classes simply involve taking notes and digesting whatever the teacher says, similar to college. However, you will not score highly on the exams if you don't read the book or some online notes, also similar to college. These classes effectively mirror college education, and as such, they serve as accurate determinations of the student's college readiness. Fewer AP classes should utilize the "beat-the-material-into-their-skulls" approach. Only then will they serve their true purpose: to measure college aptitude.