"Dodger Time Sucks!" This sentiment rings through hallways and class rooms throughout the school. Whether Dodger Time sucks is not the question. That’s obvious. I’m here to tell you why Dodger Time sucks.

I strongly believe that Dodger Time would have met much less resistance had we remained in our original homerooms. Many students and I wouldn’t have made a peep had we been told we were going to have homeroom every day.

Apparently we students filled out some bogus survey, and the results said some students didn’t have a teacher they felt they could come to for help. My old homeroom teacher was such a person for me, and now not only has Dodger Time taken away my occasional school hours visits with them, I have been denied the opportunity to visit with them every day. Many Seniors, Juniors and Sophomores feel the same way I do. They’re called homerooms, and we’ve been taken out of our homes, and awkwardly shoved into new ones.

We’re supposedly sorted by career interests we chose on yet another survey I’m sure everyone took very seriously. High school students change what they want to do for a career all the time, and forcing them into a group based on what they wanted to be at one moment of time is ridiculous.

No worries though, because from what I’ve seen and heard the sorting was bogus as well. Another student was telling me about their new adventures in Dodger Time. The career path they seek is politics. When they said so to their Dodger Time teacher, the teacher said that they hate politics and anytime someone talks about politics they move away. Doesn’t sound like the proper Dodger Time assignment to me, but oh well.

I have heard positive reactions about Dodger Time, but they all seem to be from students whose Dodger Time teachers ignore the crap that they’re supposed to get the students to do and just let the students talk. One teacher said that it seems as Dodger Time has progressed, those who were against it to begin with are only more fervent in their protestations, and those that stood up for it are slowly backing down.

Many high school students have jobs. Many have been working since they were 14 or 15. It seems pretty silly that we’re going to spend 20 minutes out of our school day to teach students how to fill out a job application.

Another negative impact of Dodger Time is the obvious cuts to class time. Only five minutes from each, but five minutes can matter. Mr. Long’s Iowa Central Human Anatomy class already had to begin earlier in the morning than most classes in order to get all the college credit for the class. Thanks to Dodger Time, the class has to begin even earlier.

Dodger Time isn’t graded. Students have no reason to do the little tasks set forth by their teachers. Students blow off a large portion of class work they’re actually graded on, and they’re expected to put forth effort for nothing? Not likely.

Even though I flex third period, I too am forced to attend this travesty of a homeroom. I didn’t mind it today though, because I used the otherwise wasted time to write this opinion. Delicious irony, yes?

In conclusion, we’re still "giving it a chance"/ being dragged along. What it comes down to is either the kinks need to be worked out or they need to stop wasting our time.