Volume 71, Issue 1

October 3, 2022

LOHS introduced Advisory and Character Strong as a way for students to connect with each other during the school day. Character Strong was founded with the purpose of teaching students to be more empathetic and understand more about social emotional learning. Schools have used it since to foster a more positive learning environment.

At LOHS, the Character Strong curriculum is being taught using a variety of slideshows and videos. Some teachers start with the required slides, then move on to their own plans. Senior Lukas Knipple stated, “My teacher takes the purpose of connecting with students and discussing important school topics that are brought up in advisory seriously, but not necessarily the curriculum itself. As in, we’ll start with the curriculum but we generally transition to a separate conversation for the remainder of the class.”

Students have mixed feelings about Advisory. Some students, like senior Cate Hoffman, feel like it is a positive break in the middle of the day: “To be honest, I enjoy my time there, but I don’t feel like I view our lessons and activities as necessary or helpful.”

Other students enjoy advisory, but struggle with using the period beneficially, “I enjoy my time in Advisory as a free period I can use as a break from academics and for time to socialize. If we were able to use the period more like a support seminar period where it could be more work focused, I think it’d be more beneficial. Otherwise I’m pretty neutral on its benefits,” stated Knipple. 

Many schools use Advisory as a less structured period, however, students at LO believe that some of the rules make it feel like more of a class. “I feel like when I get to Advisory I want to enjoy my time with the rest of the students and my teacher, but the phone policy makes it feel like a class and not a time for us to check in with each other” stated Hoffman. 

The no-homework policy during Advisory has caused the greatest uproar among students.  Senior Sadie Smith stated, “I feel that not being able to do homework is a waste of our time. We need that time to do homework so we can get more sleep and have more free time at home.”