Photo by Caleb Kasten

Bardia Hormozi was shocked when he saw the blocked screen after searching up Cool Math games. He was finished with his classowork and was looking to do something to kill time.

Imagine you’re in third period and you have finished all your classwork. You have nothing to do so you decide to play some CoolMath games to relax for the last 10 minutes until the bell. Or, maybe you’re in the middle of writing an essay; you get distracted, log into CoolMath and play it for the rest of the period, leaving yourself with a mountain of homework. Either way, you’ve just participated in a years-long tradition upheld by many WJ students. CoolMath games was a nostalgic escape from the stressful work that comes with high school, but now it’s gone.

Cool Math games is a website that contains a variety of educational games enjoyed by all students K-12, and it was recently blocked by Montgomery County Public Schools. This didn’t sit well with most students, but surprisingly benefited others.

CoolMath allows students the ability to take breaks while working on their assignments or to goof off when they’ve finished. “If you are a learner like me, you split your work into increments because staying on task for a long period of time is difficult,” sophomore Geoffery Kemp said.

On the other hand, some students learn better when there aren’t distractions that are easy to access. “I find it easier to do my work knowing there aren’t any games I can access on my computer,” junior Dan Avillo said.

Though CoolMath is often thought of as only a source of distraction, it has also helped students find new interests. “I started playing chess on Cool Math when I completed my assignments in physics class. I found out I really enjoyed chess and later on joined the chess club,” junior Jake Sher said.

Being a teacher of a class centered around computers, Computer Science teacher Fedor Menchukov witnessed CoolMath games being played quite often. “I have no problem with Cool Math Games getting blocked as I did not think very highly of the website. However, many obscure gems with educational value got blocked that I did use, which I’m very cross about,” Menchukov said.