Justice High School provides return time during fourth period as an addi­tional way for students to get extra help from teach­ers. However, does return time help students as much as the admin­is­tra­tion initially intended? Though the objec­tive of return time was to give students addi­tional support time with their teach­ers, some students don’t think the outcome has been as posi­tive. Often, students are required to go to a class during return time that may not be bene­fi­cial for them on that given day. This results in students tend­ing to go on their phones or talk with friends, when no work is needed to be done in that given class. 

Many students in the Justice commu­nity are unhappy with the addi­tion of return time during the fourth period block. Fresh­man Tyler Wood­bury disagrees with the proposed bene­fits of return time saying, “During return time you don’t have the choice to go to whichever class you need help in.” said Wood­bury. “I think that advi­sory would be a better option for fourth period because you get more time with your teach­ers. For any class, if you don’t under­stand some­thing, then you can just go to their class with a pass.”

Addi­tion­ally, other students at Justice don’t discern an effec­tive­ness of return time. “I think that return time is unor­ga­nized and a waste of my time. With den days, students could actu­ally get the extra help that they needed. Rather than going to a class that they might not need help in for half of fourth period,” said junior Atelia McClel­land. Further­more, junior Ashley Luna disagrees with the goals of return time by saying, “I like the option to be able to choose where I want to go, whether that be for help or if I’m doing a group project. I like having the oppor­tu­nity to be able to leave [class] with a pass.” Instead of wast­ing time going to classes that won’t bene­fit them, plenty of Justice High School students prefer to have the free­dom to receive help from teach­ers in the classes where they are struggling. 

US/VA govern­ment teacher Tara Davi­son recog­nizes some of the flaws of return time by stat­ing, “I believe return time can be a good resource for students, espe­cially those who might be absent or need some reme­di­a­tion. However, I think there needs to be more struc­ture and leniency. If a student isn’t strug­gling in my class, but needs help in another class, I don’t see any reason why they shouldn’t be able to go to another class during advi­sory or return time.” Conclu­sively, the staff at Justice recog­nize the bene­fits of tweak­ing the use of return time and provid­ing more struc­ture within fourth period. Over­all, though return time may have been created with good inten­tion, many students believe that it is not the best use of time during fourth period.