Throughout my four years at LHS, I’ve learned that things are pretty consistent. I’ve become accustomed to each teacher and how they teach. I’m used to the barren white walls and candy apple red lockers. I’m completely attuned to the relaxing and independent feel of classes where I get along with my teacher and classmates. I’m used to being able to pick who I get along with and ignore, or politely acknowledge everyone else.

Most things are okay the way they are here at LHS, and the aspects of LHS that aren’t up to par you learn to deal with.

What I’m not accustomed to is the unnecessary changes LHS has made this school year to impress the NEASC committee.

The first change this year would be the advisory program put in place specifically because of the surveys we took for NEASC. The whole idea of the advisory program is that students will be able to bond with each other and teachers.The thing is though, the school placed students of the same grade in advisories together. If they haven’t bonded over the past three or four years they’ve been in school together, I don’t think forcing them in a room together will do anything.

And same for the student-teacher bond the administration is trying to force upon us. Forcing a student into the class of a teacher they may or may not like just for the sake of saying LHS has a cohesive unit of students and teachers is like hanging out with a bunch of people you hate just for the sake of having friends. This is like a forced “play date” where random people are gathered together to hang out for 22 minutes. What’s the point?

Another unnecessary change to the workings of LHS is the whole concept of “class objectives” and an “agenda.” Recently, each teacher is required to post an agenda and list of objectives for the day. Then, the teacher is required to read them out loud to the class, like a kindergarten teacher reading to their five-year-olds the schedule for the day. We’re supposed to be preparing for college; I doubt a college professor would take the time each day to read the class the lesson plan. This takes away from time teachers could be doing what they’re supposed to, teaching, and is just a random and incessant chore.

And what has the administration done recently in order to spruce up the barren white walls of LHS in order to appease and impress NEASC upon their arrival? They’ve decorated the classrooms with projects and artwork like that of an elementary school, putting the kids’ work and drawings that are colored between the lines on display at open house.

We’ve made the whole arrival of NEASC such a big deal by making unnecessary changes to an average LHS. True, the school isn’t perfect and there are plenty of problems, but for some reason those aren’t the ones we are focused on changing. Instead the faculty and administration poke and prod at the little things, invading the sanctuary of the classrooms and making students and teachers alike feel like an exhibit at the local zoo.

So, instead of making these insignificant changes the administration should make changes to the real problems here at LHS. First off, our bathrooms are disgusting. Not only do the toilet seats have marks from burning cigarette butts, reak to no end, and have doors that do not close due to broken locks, but most of them are rarely open. It takes students a good five minutes to find a bathroom because they have to search around the school to find that one that is unlocked.

Also, some classes are forced to use books that are outdated and falling apart. How am I supposed to take my AP Government book seriously when it talks about the predictions for the 2008 election and how Barack Obama is a promising senator from Illinois?

Then, there are English books that are old and held together with tape — tape so old it has lost its adhesive quality. How many novels in the book room were actually written in this century?

So maybe instead of spending LHS’ time and money on signs that display the record-long mission statement that nobody knows or cares about, or our favorite acronym, L.I.O.N.S., which stands for a type of feline that lives in Africa, make some changes that actually improve the living situation here at LHS.