It’s 9:00 AM on any given school day, in any given classroom; you sit leisurely as your teacher begins to get frantic. Ten minutes left until break. She might be handing out papers or he might be reminding you about an upcoming test, or that night’s homework.

All is well in educatory land until a mystic and unwelcome vocal presence makes itself known. At first you are confused, bewildered, maybe even frightened. The voice infiltrates your classroom completely; it continues speaking as your ear drums tremble with uncertainty. As you begin to digest the words you become even more puzzled, your head begins to spin, your thoughts race; ‘I’m a 5-foot tall female freshman, what do you mean boys’ varsity football has a meeting at break?’

A confused 16-year old male sophomore sits next to you, looking just as mystified. ‘Girl’s varsity soccer? What? WHAT’S HAPPENING TO ME, OH THE HORROR!’ he thinks, shrinking down underneath his desk and beginning to rock back and forth, pulling out his own hair.

After the voice twangs off and you both regain normal heart rate and lung function, your teacher continues with their test reminder, only to be interrupted once again, this time by an ear piercing electronically synthesized bell sound. And by the time they realize what has happened, their students have buffalo herded themselves to the amphitheatre - leaving a room of flying and forgotten homework assignments in their wake.

Twenty minutes later, the next class of students scramble into their seats, their teacher’s now prepared to fix last period’s mistake.

‘I’ll give them their homework at the beginning of class’ they think, mischievously rubbing their hands together and cackling evilly.

Nice try Mr. James but that outline on modern literature will have to wait, because another mystical, evil voice has penetrated your classroom walls, and there’s nothing you can do about it. MWWWAAAAHAAAAAHAAAAA!

‘I could have sworn they just had break announcements’ baffled students and teachers think together as they stand up to take the pledge. Taking their seats again, they all begin to hear reminders about break meetings for various clubs for the following day.

The next morning at 9:05 you find yourself in the midst of another barrage of tragic reminders. You recall hearing the same things less just the day before in the regular morning announcements second block. Even you, being a member of no extra curricular activities or sports, know exactly where the Young Republicans and the boys’ golf teams are supposed to meet.

‘Maybe it’s just a friendly reminder’ you think to yourself. But then you notice the look of anguish on your educator’s face and realize that something that causes this much torment, frustration, and suffering mustn’t be friendly at all. In reality, it must be evil.

‘If these kids forget about their club and sport’s meetings in less than 24 hours, they probably don’t even remember what club or sport their in anyway. Diagnose them with Alzheimer’s and let me get back to my learning’ you think irritated and slightly enraged. Maybe you feel alone, or like you and your teacher share this horrible bond of interruption and aggravation.

It’s okay, you’re not alone. I’m frustrated too. In a giant school of 2500 plus students, I find it just a tad bit ridiculous to interrupt every single class to address, often times, less than 10% of the student body with a reminder they just heard just the day before in the time actually allotted for this type of announcement.

I don’t play boys’ tennis, I’m not a member of the ping pong club, and frankly, I don’t really care where they’re meeting a break. I could see the relevance of this type of announcement if perhaps it applied to all of the freshmen, or at least 25% of the students here at RHS. But 20 people meeting in a single classroom doesn’t seem to me like something that should interrupt my frustrated educator’s day, after day after day.

Wouldn’t it be just as affective to make the announcements 10 seconds after the bell? Does the start of break signal all the student’s to scream and run about frantically, covering their ears and ignoring all intercom announcements? Or in fact would it not make more sense to make these announcements after the first class has ended?

After-school activities are simply that; for after school. They shouldn’t consume class time, and intercom reminders about them shouldn’t either. Break is student time, therefore being the perfect time to discuss personal student business, a.k.a. extra-curricular activities.

In closing, all I’m really asking is for something unreasonable to made reasonable. Don’t interrupt teachers that are already stressed out and pressed for time. Don’t fill up our class time with announcements about after-school activities. Don’t annoy us with announcements that don’t even apply to 1/10 of us – it’s just plain rude.