You know something’s bad when even those in charge can’t get behind their own idea.

Such was the case on PSAT day.  After the senior panoramic photo, all 552 seniors were required to go to mandatory “workshops” designed to be a benefit in the students’ lives.  The unfortunate thing was, not one person was in favor of these seminars.  Staff and students alike failed to see the point in administrations most recent, brilliant plan.

PSAT day is one of the few days where seniors can say a big “Screw you!”  to the rest of the school as they sleep in and the rest of the underclassmen toil on the exam.  This year, instead of crowding IHOP with a hundred of their closest friends, seniors had to toil through workshops varying from application help, to college sports, to the all-important college essay help.

Don’t get me wrong, in theory, it’s a great idea, but so is communism.  Despite being mandatory, many students skipped and got a head start on their day off.  Strike one.  Counselors repeated themselves for the umpteenth millionth time about the college application process, like we had never heard it before.  Strike two.  Other seminars were a 45 minute excuse to sit and text with your friends while teachers rambled on about the necessity of a period in an essay or how to play football in college.  Strike three. Isn’t the saying “Three strikes, you’re out?”

Administration had good intentions when they planned these workshops.  It was an easy way to try and make seniors’ lives just a little bit easier by offering some well-directed advice on whatever topic the students felt they needed help with.  They just missed one vital point—make the seminars actually beneficial to the students.  Personally, I attended the College Application Help led by the counselors; there I spent 45 minutes of my time listening to them complain about how they are fed up about having to say the same thing over and over. A little bit of a double standard, is it not? Time wasted after the panoramic in these workshops could have been put to better use: catching up on homework, college apps, or catch up on much needed sleep; I would take any of those three options.

So what if kids want to go to IHOP on a day off? So what if they want a few more hours of sleep that are lost because of school in the first place? Honestly, if kids really need to work on college apps, then they will; one day not trapped in a building spent listening to idle gab isn’t going to hurt anyone. Let seniors have their day.  Everyone needs a day off, and I think that we have definitely earned it.