Chair tipped back, feet propped up and not a care in the world. This is the picture of many students during ‘blow off’ school days. On Fridays, often at the end of a six weeks, most students sit through class playing Candy Crush or scrolling through their Twitter timeline.

Many claim that we students do no school work on those days. If there is no work many students think that is a free-for-all. So, is it acceptable to have ‘blow-off’ days during school?

No, it is most definitely not okay to waste valuable school time. But, I am guilty for wasting time when I had had work to do.  I enjoyed the free time during class, but this should never be taken to an extreme.

We students are here at school to learn things, enrich ourselves, and engage in a healthy lifestyle. These are some of the components of the Lovejoy Graduate Profile. Playing on our much-loved iPhones with ear buds in both ears does none of the above.

One too many times I have heard friends talk about how we are doing nothing at school during that day in the commons between classes. To the student body this mean’s it’s a free-for all and people will sometimes even skip school.

I, however, have tested this theory. One school day at the end of the first six weeks I turned on a stopwatch during classes when we were not doing any work or the teacher was not lecturing. Throughout the day the time wasted was racked up to three hours and forty-five minutes. That is a whole valuable chunk of the school day.

But what exactly should we be doing with that time?

During this time students should work or study freely. There is always something you can do thats academic, like reading a book or working ahead. During the school day we are here to learn, and we should utilize this time wisely.

I know that most students themselves would not do this, however I strongly believe that it should be implemented in classrooms that students need to be working and learning at all times. That is what we spend our time here for, right?

There are a few ways the school could enforce this. It could be required that during class students are not allowed to have their phones out. Teachers could also take a grade on productivity.

So, is all the wasted time the teacher’s fault or one of the students?

It is probably a little bit of both. I think that teacher’s themselves are a wee bit guilty of being a little lax when the grading period is toward the end. I have even been in classes where the teachers say they don’t care what we do because they need to grade. I honestly don’t think that this is appropriate, no matter the circumstances. Teachers expect students to have their work done for the class, and I feel that this respect should be reciprocated.

It is also somewhat the students fault. They again should be putting as much work as the teachers do into their school work.

So, over all I think that spending a day at lax while on campus is not and should not be acceptable in the eyes of the teachers, administrators or students.