Three years ago, when I was in sixth grade, the Lincoln Middle School house system was created known as the Ron Clark Academy House System. This system divides students into 8 houses that strive to create a sense of community and belonging while also promoting leadership and character development. In the beginning, the houses sounded great but as many have come to realize, this system was flawed. Why is this?
Well, when the sixth graders were sorted into their houses, they had an entire day to celebrate. They were asked to spin a wheel when picking their houses and then celebrated with a bounce house and a DJ; while the now eighth graders only got a slip of paper and were told to go sit in the bleachers for the rest of the day.
Eighth grader Hunter Vivian said, “I do not think that it is fair we just got a piece of paper with a name I can’t even pronounce, and next thing we know we are stuck with a group of teachers and students for the next three years.”
Another difference we found between grade levels was that the sixth graders liked that we have den meetings every Friday, but the eighth graders did not. When we asked the question, do you enjoy the den meetings every Friday? Sixth grader Charlotte Hanson said, “I love having den meetings on Fridays, because we get to be with our houses and make new friends.” When we asked the same question to eighth grader Ben Summers he replied with, “I hate that we have dens every Friday, because what if I have a test that I need to study for, or I need to ask a teacher something. I cannot because we must be in our dens.” The difference in these answers might have something to do with the fact that eighth graders have more homework and tests, while sixth graders do not. Or it might just be because the eighth graders were introduced so differently to the house system, that now we do not enjoy it.
The final question we asked was if they thought the house system was inclusive. The answers varied, but seventh grader Tori Duckett answered with, “I think that there should be more of a variety of things we do for the house days because not everyone is good at dodgeball or soccer, but we all want to participate, but overall, I think it is as inclusive as it can be.”
While our school is definitely better off with the house system in place, major kinks in the system remain to be solved so that we are truly benefiting from its implementation.
