[dropcap style=”simple” size=”5″]C[/dropcap]oming into high school, everyone wants to find somewhere to fit in, whether one wants to admit it or not. As a sophomore, I really didn’t know where I fit because I felt lost in such a big school filled with upperclassmen. Many classes helped me find my way, guiding me through my first year at RBHS and ultimately setting the tone for my whole high school career.
The one class that stuck out to me, though, was advisory — a supervised Alternating Unassigned Time (AUT) that all sophomores had to attend.
Advisory brought a group of random sophomores together with one or two senior mentors and a teacher. It was often times either a study hall or a time to mingle with friends, but throughout the year, we did activities that —for lack of better terms— forced us to work as a class. These activities not only brought our class together, but invited the school to join in as well. Advisory separated RBHS from any other school and, to me, was by far the best part of my sophomore year.
My favorite task that we did was door decs. Basically, each advisory class got one door in school that they decorated depending on the theme given by Student Council. In my year, our theme was “paint the town.” It was a versatile theme that allowed for much creativity. My advisory class decorated our door as if it were a city being painted by Sesame Street characters.
We drew the characters, buildings and props in order to bring the theme together. The day right before the door decs got judged, I stayed after school to drip paint down the Sesame Street characters that were holding paint brushes.
The process of working on door decs was great for bringing us sophomores together, but the best part was how the door decs brought the school together. Teachers judged door decs the next day and picked some to send to the next round of activities. Up and down the hallways, everyone admired the unique door decs. Even if you didn’t win, it was cool to see how creative the other advisories had been with the given theme. Door decs (along with other advisory events) were a tradition that meant something to RBHS and set RBHS apart from other high schools.
My class was the last class to get the chance to experience that tradition of advisory. I don’t see how that’s fair to future classes. Every lower classman that I’ve talked to dreads going to Bruin Block, but I never felt that way about Advisory. And if the school really “had” to implement Bruin Block, I don’t see why the advisory class, which the lower classmen are still required to take on top of Bruin Block, couldn’t have kept up the tradition of the advisory activities.
Of course the school had to change after RBHS added freshmen, but the new rules have treated the class behind me like freshmen as well. Some changes that were made seem to overcompensate for the addition. Instead of being a part of RBHS’ traditions, all generations behind me are losing an important addition to the school.
Sure, students have Bruin Block and Supervised AUT (Advisory), but without the fun activities and school-wide participation, both Bruin Block and Advisory are pointless classes to just fill up time.
When it comes to all of the classes under me, I wish I could give them the great experience I had when I was new to RBHS. My class had the opportunity to truly be a part of the school, as well as create our own adventure out of it.
Door decs should come back into Advisory not only to uphold RBHS’ traditions, but also to allow for the so-called togetherness that Bruin Block claims to give students.
By Renata Williams
Art by Maddy Mueller.