By Kaya Bailey
Photos courtesy of ArchDailey
It’s 8:12 am and you just got dropped off at school! Class starts in 3 minutes, and you only have to walk to the math hallway. Doable, right? However, the walk across the courtyard is about 3 minutes in itself, and there is nowhere near enough time to make it to class after the journey across the grass. Students should be arriving at campus with enough time to safely make their way to class, but even without the account of the inconvenient late-to-class walk, there are still many problems with the courtyard at GHS that need to be addressed.
The trees at the end of the courtyard along with the picnic tables give students a calming and cool place to hang out during off-blocks and eat lunch. At lunch you can
see students congregating here, and it can be agreed by most of the student body that this area was a lovely idea for the school. However, when you take a look over at the courtyard to see these students, you notice the remaining grassy part of it, empty, aside from the students walking over to their chosen lunch table. There will occasionally be a group of boys throwing a football in this empty patch during their off, or a circle of people hacky-sacking, but apart from that it does not make a very good hang-out spot. This needs to be fixed in order to accommodate the 1500 students at our school.
Along with the lack of socialization areas, the proportions of the courtyard are inconvenient and don’t make much sense. The smaller courtyard/grassy patch in the center of GHS is always bustling with students, and it is connected well to other points in the school. If you need to run into the bathroom quickly or go grab lunch, the B building is only a few steps away. Need to talk to a teacher? The Academic building is next door. It is a perfect socialization and connection point for the students throughout the day. The other picnic table-filled section, on the other hand, feels like a 3-hour walk away from the already long lunch line. Because the grassy area in the center of the courtyard is hardly used, it does not make sense to have it separating the students. It would make the most sense to move the trees and tables much closer to the school, essentially swapping the grassy and social areas. This would allow all the students to be connected with each other and their resources at all times without a dreadful walk in between.
If we want this to actually change, we have to do more than just talk about the concept. To fix this issue, we have to recognize the key factors of the change. First, we would need to relocate the picnic tables. This task can either be fairly simple or much more complicated. If our picnic tables are anchored into a block of concrete in the ground, the process may be long and labor-filled, and chances are that our tables were put in the ground this way. However, it is still doable if the change is greatly advocated and pushed for. Next, the trees would have to “move”, which is not a simple process at all. They would most likely have to be chopped down and new ones would have to be planted, which would take a long time to grow and might affect the recovery of their previous grass. All of this considered, it is possible, and if students brought enough attention to the issue this change could really happen.
As already discussed, there are complications that would come along with this switch. Alongside the problems in relocating this eating/working/socializing area, there are a few other issues this topic brings up. First of all, the school might not look as appealing anymore, both in-person and in photos. The tall and giant bunch of trees at the front of the school might lower the aesthetics of the school front, and photos of just the buildings may be difficult to get. The far-away table area of the courtyard does give students a separation from their peers if needed, and moving it closer would eliminate that escape. Alongside those issues, students wanting to play sports in the courtyard might encounter a run-in with angry students in the parking lot if a ball happens to hit their car. All of these are valid issues, but the pros of the decision make the change worth it, especially if it is advocated for by students.
If the students at Golden Highschool want to move the social, tree-filled table section of the courtyard closer to the school, it is a change that should be made. If people are happy and comfortable at the school it will increase their academic performance and overall mental health during the school day. Since parking is also a big issue at our school, the parking lot could be expanded into the new green space if needed. Outside lunch-eaters, athletes, people in a rush to class, and those on off blocks would all be happy with this change at GHS. Switching the two sides of the courtyard would be a positive change that would increase the socialization, comfort, happiness, and efficiency of the school and students.
Leave a comment