Here at Century Middle school, every student is assigned a locker to use, but are they actually good for students?
“I love that kids get to have the opportunity to organize themselves in a way that makes sense to them for an entire day…,”
“…The amount of time that it takes some kids to use their lockers and that they…aren’t clean in any way, shape or form…”
“…I think they are better to have.” -Mrs. Vollmer, principal of Century Middle School.
A benefit of lockers is that students have to carry less stuff. They are able to leave things, such a jacket or a basketball, that are only needed at the end or beginning of the day. Less items also means less distractions for the students. “…I think that when you have less to bring to class it’s less distracting for students,” Mrs. Aylor, Colorado core teacher, “I also think it is helpful to store things you might only need at the beginning or end of the day.”
However, kids often leave needed supplies in their locker making them unprepared for class. Without lockers, a student would forget less things and be more prepared. “That they are always leaving the things they need in their locker.” -Mr. Brask, Socrates core teacher.
Lockers also provide a place to store stuff one does necessarily want to carry. Instead of having to carry things for all six classes, they only have to carry things for two, greatly reducing their weight load. They can also leave their backpack in the locker, to avoid backpacks cluttering up a classroom. “I don’t have to carry everything I need around and I can just store stuff in there.” – Lawson Carlill, 6th grade student.
Lockers have few rules students need to follow, yet students still break these rules all the time, even though they are put in place to keep students and others safe. No lockers, means less rule breaking. “They share lockers when they’re not suppose to,” – Mrs. Greenwell, 6th grade counselor.
One thing many students dislike about the lockers here at Century is that they are too small to fit much stuff, even though they said they liked having lockers, something most people agreed with. “Probably that they are tiny on the inside and you can’t fit much stuff inside.” – Lucas Overton, 6th grade.
