By Madeleine Burke
There has been a new and recent adaptation to Hathaway Brown school life! The adaptation of a new bell to separate classes. This is a very new and recent change for the students, these new bells have special features that the old bells may not have had. For instance, these new bells are promptly on time for every class! Bells govern a large portion of a student’s school life. School bells can even have an effect on a student’s mood throughout the day. With such a different change I decided to send a survey out to see what the students and faculty feel about this new change…
Do the HB students and faculty like the new bells or do they miss the old ones?:
The burning question is whether the students and faculty enjoy the new bells. I felt like this question was being avoided throughout the school, so I put it first on my survey!
As seen above this was the pie chart of how students felt about the new bells. Mostly students replied saying that they did not like the new change in bells at HB. I wondered whether the students missed the old bells as well….
Above is the pie chart of this second question. This chart had more diverse responses showing that some of the students don’t like the new bells but they don’t miss the old ones either. The goal of my survey was to really listen to the voices of the student body and faculty on this new adaptation so I let them put their own thoughts into the survey on the bells.
Comments from the student body and why their opinions matter…
Most of the students have very avid responses and comments on the new bells in both positive and negative ways. Some students replied saying “The new bells make me feel like I’m in a mental hospital.” Some students took a different approach saying, “I like the bells, but can we have a normal bell sound.” Other comments were to change the key or the length of time that the new bells ring for. While some students made comments on the new bells sounding like a train that is always on time. From the amount of responses received on the survey, it is clear that the students want their voices heard on the topic of new bells. Most agree that the bells being on time are helpful for students to navigate their school day, but the sound of those bells is making matters to the student body. Taking the time to listen to the students on this new issue helps get their voices out and come up with ways of compromise and change for these bells. Students have many mixed feelings on these bells, some with a more positive outlook and others with critiques on what could be changed! As stated above, school bells have the power to govern a large portion of these students’ lives and should not be overlooked!
Honorable responses:
Finally, I picked out some of the most interesting responses to the comments on my survey!
“I would make it play differently: the classic British clock tower sound, department store closing sounds, or music- classical, instrumental, pop, etc…”
“It’s like Santa’s train, rolling into the North Pole Station! Every 50 min!”
“They sound like the Purge Alarm”
“Make them less evil”
“Play some music, it would be more interesting”
“I am glad that we’ve finally embraced our Hogwarts status. Each time the bell rings I am ready to board at 9 and three quarters to head to my Slytherin Common Room.”
HB IN RETROSPECT 