BY BLAKE BEAMAN
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While by no means a new trend, students falling asleep in classes is an epidemic that still sweeps across many of the classrooms of Roseville High School. This may be a factor of students not getting enough sleep, or it might have something to do with that students lack of interest in content and motivated to learn.

Heavy workloads are often given to students, keeping them up late into the night. Having to turn around and get back to school by 7:30 in the morning is no piece of cake. It’s extremely difficult to get through the day on little sleep, but I don’t believe this to be the main cause of students’ in-class naps.

As a student, I know a class that I am interested and engaged in will help me pay attention and essentially stay awake. Some classes are far more interesting than others, but for those less interesting classes, I try to keep engaged by participating and completing my work. Students need to value the time that is given to them in their classes, and it is the job of the teacher to promote a learning environment in which students are engaged and participating.

All students should try to stay awake and get all of their stuff done to maintain or improve their grades in the class. Even the “high-performing” students should be doing just that, no matter how easy the class is for them.

These high performing students can often sleep through a class for the entire semester, giving forth minimum effort, and get rewarded with the same grade for diligent work. Kids not considered “high-performing” could be working four times as hard as the students in that category, and get a lower grade because they just might not be as academically gifted as the other students.

The grading system does not do a great job of rewarding those students who put forth their effort and time into a class in an attempt to get a good grade.

However, students should be consistently working hard regardless of that fact. A consistent work-ethic will develop better study habits that will pay off on tests like the SAT and in daily interactions later on in life. I don’t think the system should be solely based upon effort, but it should have an effect on the grades of students who are staying awake in class and trying to get a good grade. I approve teachers on this campus who give a participation grade, which promotes their students to pay attention and remain engaged throughout the class.

Teachers should try to keep higher performing students engaged and involved, even if they are in a class with students who don’t perform as well as them. Maybe give the students more work and keep them occupied so it isn’t such a breeze for some them. It is an advanced course, after all.

Teachers need to do a better job of keeping their students awake and engaged in their classes so they can develop better study habits to help them for future classes and tests. It is also the job of the students to stay awake and be engaged in their classes so they can develop their own habits to help them improve their learning skills.