Lunch

In some New York City public schools, children are given the opportunity to go outside during their lunch period instead of being forced to stay inside and eat school lunch. A school lunch period is considered a free period and actually benefits students in many ways.

Bee Lewis a student at Forsyth feels that Satellite is better as a school, because students go outside for lunch. She feels that it sets the school apart from other schools because it gives students more freedom being that they have to be in school from 8:50 am to 3:10 pm. It makes students feel like they aren’t locked up and forced to be somewhere that they do not want to be. Another student named Kenya Parks says that being able to have an option to go outside makes you enjoy your school day. She feels that it is easy to get through the first half of your day knowing that eventually you will get to go out to get a break and you have the choice to do whatever you want for a little while.

Making lunch a “free period” with no restrictions also gives students the opportunity to make up work that they have missed or did not get a chance to finish, which helps improve their grades. Allowing students to go out for lunch also helps build the relationship between the school and the students. School staff expects to be trusted by student and expect them to feel like their in a safe environment. Schools allowing students to go outside shows that they are trusted to come back and to be able to have freedom and still keep the school a safe place.