Dear Editor,

In your last issue, I read your article titled “Advisory Chopped Down Again.”

Coming from Atholton last year, when I arrived at Wilde Lake, I loved Advisory at the start of the school year.

At Atholton, we had “Raider Time” which was a 25-minute period in between second and third every Wednesday.

Moving to Wilde Lake, it was like having “Raider Time” everyday. It was so helpful using the time to finish an assignment from the previous night that I didn’t have time to do because of some extracurriculars.

But, it was also nice to just sit on my phone and decompress before continuing the day.

Advisory was like a checkpoint, a sign that I was indeed getting through the day. It distinguished Wilde Lake from other schools and this distinction, (as cheesy as it sounds) really made the school seem more like an “Ohana.”

Advisory was a beneficial tradition and routine that no other school had.

When Advisory was cut down to only three days a week, I wasn’t too bogged down because I was used to going days without any type of free period from my previous school.

Yet, it was mildly inconvenient to have to sigh and think to myself “I can’t do this assignment because there’s no Advisory on Friday.”

When Advisory was cut down to just one day a week, and practically removed, I was just disappointed above all else.

This cutdown felt like a slap in the face.

It not only stripped away a routine that many students were accustomed to at such a crucial part in the year, right before Spring Break, it also felt like Wilde Lake was becoming just another school in Howard County with no true distinction.

It felt like we were giving up part of what made our Ohana so special. The way I see it, there now is no difference between “Raider Time” and Advisory. Thus, that special part of our Ohana, which makes us different, is gone.

A little piece of us is lost.

I understand that this is may be due to backlash from the Board and complaints from teachers about instructional time.

But if school is designed to nurture and promote not only students, but also a sense of community, why not continue to implement Advisory more frequently into our weekly routine?