Opinions6

The method is in the motivation

The color red is seen in the caffeine-ridden and sleepless eyes of students almost as commonly as it is on their shirts. There’s only one time of year those eyes are seen on all the students for the exact same reason - with a hint of self-pity in them, too - and that’s finals time.

In order to keep students from overdosing on coffee during this stressful period, they should be allowed to excuse themselves from one of their finals per semester.

According to Marquette High School’s policy, students in their final semester of school are ex-empt from taking all the exams for courses in which they have earned an A. The Kirkwood Call proposes that at KHS, this idea of an excused fi-nal would apply to all students, except they would only choose one of the classes they have an A in, rather than being exempt from every final.

Some may say that no real application of knowl-edge could be shown using this method, yet the semester leading up to finals is the real test of in-telligence for every student. 59 percent (204/344) of students rush to relearn the material for that

one test anyway, and there is a huge difference between re-memorizing

something and actually learning it the first time. The

learning process, rather than the

memorizing, is the one that counts for

truly understanding the material.

Although AP teachers might feel their students should be required to take

a final, due to the courses being set at higher standards, it serves no purpose other than added stress. The actual AP exam is the true final that proves if they have been paying attention, and that is the biggest test of all. AP students should also be responsible enough to stay on track with-out taking two finals.

With a policy that would benefit KHS students, more of them would set goals to reach a well-earned A. According to a research paper done at George Washington University, motivation is broken down into competence and control. Com-petence can possibly alter a student’s perception of their own abilities in a positive way. And there is no better motivation to earn an A than not hav-ing to take the final.

Students also have to be in complete control of this important and potentially rewarding goal as they see it through. They have to stay organized and focused as they go along-- which may sound impossible with the messy tendencies teenagers

Each semester the dreaded finals time rolls around and suddenly students are caught in a whirlwind of home-work, studying and plain terror as they attempt to balance everything happening all at once. So, in order to solve the over whelming stress, The Kirkwood Call staff voted 33:18 that at KHS, students should be allowed to excuse themselves from one of their finals each semester - as long as they have earned an A in the class.

have. Building these new habits can lead to better performance in the long run, according to the Washington Uni-versity researchers.

Not having to take that one extra final can give students more time than usual to study for a class they find extremely difficult. This advantage al-lows students to excel in something they don’t under-stand very well, consider-ing they have just saved themselves from studying for a class they feel confident enough about.

Dr. Havener has also confirmed that the admin-istration has briefly discussed this topic, saying that students who are confident in a subject and have an A in a class should be able to skip the final. Yet, they also think that if anything were to change in the near future - with finals - it would most likely be the setup of the tests, because no one is quite ready to go in-depth.

KHS needs to consider switching the finals policy to benefit the student body by bringing an even larg-er success rate through more motivation, so hope-fully the number of caffeine-ridden zombies seen in the halls in December and May will decrease.

300 Words

Antonia Akrap opinions editor

-Call Editorial-

Each issue, a Call staffer addresses a topic of his or her choice using exactly 300 words. No more, no less. Count them if you don’t believe us.

Let me tip (box) you off

of students say KHS should allow them to be exempt from one of their finals each semes-ter, as long as they have an A in that class.

88% (299/340)

Blayne Fox artist

Nala Turner artist Halsey Uerling photographer

Want to hear a hilarious joke that will cause a major organ in your body to rupture because of how much you’ll laugh?

The Bullying Tip Box in the library.I’d bet my iPhone that half the peo-

ple reading this didn’t even know KHS had one. For the un-informed majority, the box was created two years ago for students to anonymously place names of people they felt threatened by. But who cares anyway, because bullying is a joke, right?

Clearly KHS students do not care about the tip box, since according to Mike Wade, junior class principal, 9 out of 10 people who use the box put the name of a friend in because they simply feel like it. That’s okay, because it is extremely amusing. But the librarians take it very seriously when they send the names off to the grade-level principals. How an-noying, since it was just for kicks.

The principals don’t find bullying very entertaining either. Havener or another administrator will confront the bully and they will probably end up denying the whole thing since the one bullying obviously doesn’t find abuse wrong.

Wait, the tip box is actually taken very seriously by the 1-in-10 students who put a name in there because they gen-uinely feel bullied by a peer. And rightly so, since the effects that come along with being a victim is feeling unsafe at KHS and too alone to be academically successful. Even 1-in-10 students drop out of high school due to bullies, according to the dosomething.org National Bully Project.

Even though those 9-in-10 people find the bullying tip box gut-wrenchingly funny, according to the National Bully Project, a victim is twice as likely to take their own life be-cause of the harassment. Try to turn that into a joke now.