Spartans, it’s time to do your PART…again.

This year, the administration added a new Spartan Time schedule on the first Monday of every month. These are not for students to do the homework they were supposed to have completed over the weekend, or take a well-deserved nap, but to focus on how to do our PART as Spartans. We have had four lessons so far, all with important messages on behavior towards others and ourselves, but no one would realize it with the way the lessons were conducted.

Take, for instance, the lesson concerning bullying. We realize the importance of this issue, especially in schools today; this is why students, as well as many others, were so shocked with its presentation.

Having to watch a student-made video, which kept the classroom laughing at the funny comments, significantly dropped the level of seriousness on the subject.

Teachers are a big factor in making the lessons serious to students. Some do try to incite meaningful conversation, and get students to pay attention and care about what they are leaning.

Unfortunately, not all of them act this way. Listening to teachers robotically read out instructions about how to fill in a Venn diagram is not an efficient way of teaching what morals we should have. It just makes us more resentful that we are forced to sit in a classroom being treated as first graders.

We are not the only ones who feel this way; many students can attest to sitting in a classroom where teachers obviously do not want to be there teaching a stupid lesson.

Some just go through the motions because they have to, but you can tell they think these activities are as stupid as we do.

For this latest PART lesson, students were asked to write down a hurtful comment that they have made or heard on a gray piece of paper, which was meant to represent a stone. These slips of paper were used to decorate a wall in the cafeteria to symbolize WS’ zero tolerance policy when it comes to bullying.

After students crumpled up the stone, they tried to smooth it out and saw how their actions had a lasting effect on those they hurt. We know it was meant to be a creative visual, but was just seen as a cheesy exercise that paralleled one seen in a Disney movie.

Instead of forcing students to participate in mindless activities, watching movies that make bullying and harassment seem funny, or bribing with clips from “Glee,” maybe encouraging students to have real conversations with their teachers that are not restricted to a monotonous prompt would be more beneficial.

If students could feel like they were being treated as adults, maybe in turn they would maintain adult conversations.

After all, making bullies do cheesy activities is not going to stop them from bullying any more than telling a smoker the dangers of nicotine will make him instantly drop his cigarette.

Though the world should not work this way, unfortunately it does, and we should change our methods to ways that will actually encourage Spartans to do their PART.