LFA Morning Meeting

Community questions legitimacy of meeting time

Nithin Reddy and

  Morning meeting has become a questionable idea that the Lake Forest Academy community disagrees upon.  Some feel it is a necessity, while others believe it’s a waste of time.  There are two main opinions that control the LFA community, the students and the faculty.

   The students have many differing opinions.  Some think morning meeting is a complete waste of time, others think that morning meeting is nice, and the rest have no opinion.  The most common response among students is that they don’t mind morning meeting, but it could be better.

   “I think morning is fine for me. However, I do not alway enjoy morning meeting because a lot of announcements are not related to me,” said junior Linjie Zhang.  “People make a lot of announcements that only include some specific people. Therefore, it might be a waste of time.”

   Many students are involved in the community, but aren’t members of clubs like JSU, GSA, or others.  The majority of the student population sometimes feels that they are only paying attention to one or two announcements because those are the only ones relevant to them.  Students also feel that they don’t pay attention to announcements that are focusing on one person.  One alternative could be sending out more emails for the unnecessary announcements.

   “I think it would be better if only necessary announcements are made and rest of those can be emailed. Therefore, the time of morning meeting can be reduced,” said Zhang.

   The faculty for the most part have a different opinion.  They like morning meeting for the experience rather than the content.  Morning meeting can be a time for the LFA community to come together and engage with each other.  History Teacher Jessica Gimbel believes this is the main reason for enjoying morning meeting.

   “I like the fact that the school has scheduled a time (twice) every week that the entire school gets together,” said Gimbel, “At morning meeting I get to see faces of students I don’t usually get to see very often.”

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  Some faculty members also find the actual announcements interesting.  At most schools there is no time in the day for a morning meeting, or there is no space for a morning meeting.  At LFA, students and faculty are able to inform the public about certain events going on around the school.  Chemistry teacher Dr. Kerry Cedergren has come to look forward to morning meetings.

   “Yes I enjoy getting the entire community together a few times per week.  I like to hear the news of the day in person,” said Cedergren.

   As the overall school population has ben inconsistent with their feelings on morning meeting one thought has risen to the top; morning meeting should be kept, but not in its current form.  Morning meeting is clearly a nice way for the community to come together and express their opinions, but it can be unnecessary at times.  An alternative for a new morning meeting could still allow for the community to meet together, but efficiently so that everyone could be engaged and involved.  Morning meeting should still meet on Wednesdays and Fridays, but for only ten minutes.  The unnecessary emails should be sent the the people who are involved.