KHUDYAKOV: Unreliable calender hinders awareness

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(JASMINE LUNAR/EYE OF THE TIGER)

NICOLE KHUDYAKOV

Here’s a single, somewhat indisputable fact: RHS is a big school with a lot of students. This means it has many classes, activities, and extracurriculars, including the regular day-to-day things that get brought up through fliers, announcements, and word of mouth here and there.

Student events and opportunities can easily get lost in a tide of new information and the natural apathy that comes with being forced to work in the early mornings, despite how diligently and regularly we, at this school, may receive this information.

For the tech-savvy (or even those who still wonder what the difference between a tab and a browser is), the place to turn to in the event of such a case scenario would be the RHS website. More specifically, the calendar.

There really is no better feeling than finding and reaffirming the time, location, and basic information of a school associated event, rather than bombarding friends or staff members with simple and pointless questions. Then again, maybe that’s just me.

Additionally, working under the assumption that parents care about their children and want to see them succeed, there are multiple scenarios where they may be curious to see their child show work and dedication towards something (other than avoiding doing homework) in person.

And therein lies the problem. What, or who, is there to see if the calendar is about as accurate as google translate on a good day? The school calendar proves itself to be useful, admirable even, almost entirely in keeping up with sporting events, and generally struggles to keep up to date with the other changes that occur at this school.

In general, the calendar makes no sense. It’s so clunky that if it wasn’t on my high school website, I’d assume it was created at about the same time MySpace took off.

While they may be at a moment’s notice, last minute schedule changes are never reflected in the school calendar, and, for the most part become known through word of mouth (or text, frequently enough) rather than through a trusted, school-approved and certified medium of information.

It is a regular fountain of knowledge, if you will, though that fountain only spews the kind of advice you’d receive from a medical professional during the worst case of the Spanish Influenza. You know, when the advice did more harm than good and sowed chaos and confusion.

It’s somewhat similar to the warning label coming loose off of a product. That label was there for a reason, and without prior warning, it’s difficult to tell if the product is being used as intended, or what else has the chance of going wrong with it. As it stands, the calendar’s unreliable nature makes it barely understandable, let alone a useable facet of the school website.