Homeroom – a period where one usually relaxes, does homework, or talks to friends. A little bit of a lull in a normally hectic day where one can stop and think about all that needs to be done. However, there has been a change in the way homerooms have been organized this year at Benet Academy.

The last few years, Benet has allowed students to choose a silent homeroom, regular homeroom, or chorus. If a student chose a normal homeroom, he or she would be randomly assigned to a classroom with a teacher moderator. Students who chose silent homeroom would be placed in the old gym where, obviously, they were not allowed to talk. Regular homeroom is the opposite of this in the fact that students are allowed to talk to the people around them. There are also lab homerooms for students who elected to not have an actual homeroom and instead use that time to do labs for their science classes.

This year Benet did something a little different. Instead of splitting up into random classrooms, freshmen, sophomores, and juniors will be grouped with other students in their respective grades who chose the same type of homeroom as they did. For example, if a freshman chose silent homeroom, then he or she is going to be with other freshmen who chose silent homeroom. Senior Nicholas Benak chose a normal homeroom last year and said that he “really enjoyed it because I had the flexibility to either do work and study or talk with friends.” Nick seems to be optimistic about the changes this year, saying, “I appreciate that I can sit near my friends who I might not have in my section.” His only concern is that “it might get too loud with so many kids in one place.”

How will this change go down with the rest of the student body? The next few weeks of school will tell. It will be a little bit of a different experience having so many more students grouped in St. Jude Commons during each homeroom period.