As a result of tragic events related to the WJ community in the past few years, the administration has rightfully instituted some new mental health programs in an effort to curb student stress. One of these is Wildcat Wellness, a 45 minute period of time designated for making up homework or meeting with teachers. Although the concept seems like it would benefit the students greatly, there are some flaws.
First off, Wildcat Wellness occurs after a different period every week, on the day after it was from the previous week. This makes it very confusing and hard to tell when we actually have our allotted free-time. With this illogical schedule, students are unable to accurately prepare themselves for their study time or get a teacher’s pass before the assigned period. It feels like we students have no idea when our next study period is until 5 minutes before it starts. Also, if this is supposed to be a time where we get to prioritize our work, how is it smart to restrict students from roaming freely? There are many occasions where a student needs to see more than one teacher for multiple subjects, but they are unable to get enough passes. I know from my experience that some teachers are reluctant to even let a student leave in the first place.
A lot of the students don’t even use the time to do homework or talk with teachers. Most kids just immediately go on their phone, and I don’t blame them with all these flaws in the program. A better option would to extend lunch for an extra 45 minutes every Wednesday. This way students would know exactly when the Wildcat Wellness is and be able to talk with any administrator that they need to. It would greatly reduce stress much more compared to what the current situation is.
Overall, I don’t really mind Wildcat Wellness too much because it still is an extra 45 minutes of free time that we wouldn’t normally get. Although it’s not as effective as I’d like it to be, it probably does help a decent amount of students that are in a pinch. I don’t think it benefits many seniors, considering that they have barely any work, but it’s likely useful for the underclassmen.
