Opinion Board up and running, but students can not forget the requirements
Now that the opinion board is up and running the student body needs a reminder of how to use it respectfully.
First off what is the opinion board? The board that is run by the Upper School Council. It’s intent is for students to use it and write down there opinions about concerns or ideas that they have. Other students can respond with sticky notes, or adding notes to the actual paper. If a student wants to respond in a more formal way they can write a essay themselves with a response. This way students can see both sides of the argument, and like the first essay students can comment and give their opinions.
Last year the opinion board was used weekly, it was a board were students could write down their opinions and feelings towards important subjects outside and inside of the school. When the piece of writing was posted, fellow students could respond with notes and questions about the piece. It was a way for all the students to see what hidden opinions were within the school.
For the first few months of this school year a lot of students in the hallways question were it had gone, and had started to assume that it was missing.
In the beginning of the school year the opinion board contained one piece of notebook paper, folded up, and scribbled in a blinding green were it said:”Hello SPA Community! This is still the opinion board so to kick off discussion this year, we’ll start with a question: how do you like the new spaces around the spaces around the school?” There is was no response to this question, and that was all that was on the board.
But now that a few opinions have been posted, and students are starting to stop and read them, we can be reminded how to use it in the right way. Written on the opinion board with guidelines it says,
- Every post must have a name and date on them. No exceptions. The date is important to tell when the conversation begins and ends and after two weeks of inactivity, the posts will be taken down to keep the board neat and clean. The name is important.
- The discussion must remain civil at all times, there cannot be personal attacks. This does not mean that we cannot have discussions that have conflict. This means that people cannot attack the other person, the ideas: it’s open season.
- “Plus 1s” are allowed “Minus 1” are not. “Minus 1s” are different than “Plus 1s” because there is a reason that somebody is opposed to something, so just saying that you are opposed and not providing a reason why does not add anything, and just subtracts.
- Try to keep posts short, this is not a hard guideline, but do not make things that are excessively long and take up a lot of space.
- Do not be afraid to post something. This is intended to represent views of the whole community, so being silent is not helpful, we want everyone’s voices to be heard and everyone’s ideas to be challenged.
If you have any other questions about the opinion board, make sure to reach out to any fellow USC members that would be happy to answer your questions.