Noise to Keep the Noise Out
by Mark Ortega

        It seems to me that schools in general make a lot of rules just to put extra restrictions on their students. Most of these rules go uncontested, and are accepted by the student body as correct. Even then, there are quite a few rules that (in my opinion) exist for no reason. One of these rules is the rule that most teachers have about the use of headphones in class.
Nowhere in the school handbook does it say that headphones or CD players are not allowed. Teachers still make the ruling whether or not they will allow them in their classroom. This year, I have experienced both kinds of teachers, ones that allow and ones that don’t allow the use of music in class. One of the reasons I am addressing this rule is that I, like many other high schoolers, have Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). If you are unfamiliar with it, ADD is the disorder in which people have a harder time concentrating than most, and usually have a tough time staying under control than people who don’t have ADD.
        The classes that allow me to use headphones are the classes I tend to do better in. I’ve noticed that when I have the option to block out other people’s conversations, I can focus more on what I need to get done, and the use of headphones aids this.
        Now I’m not saying that headphones shgould be allowed during tests and discussion time and silent time, but I really don’t see the harm in using them when teachers give out busywork and the whole class is talking anyways. As long as it isn’t bothering the people around you and the music is at a moderate level of volume, there’s really no point in being against it, except for the sake of having additional rules for the students to follow. Unlike other rules like the obvious banning of drugs and alcohol from school, throwing eggs, and other major rules, headphones don’t cause a problem. An argument against this could be that my headphones could be distracting another student, but like I said, I would only be using them during times when teachers assign busywork to finish by the end of the period. This is usually a time when everyone is talking anyways, so I don’t see the harm in letting me listen to music.
        Administrators and teachers really need to know that kids with attention problems usually need some sort of aid to keep them on track. Whether it’s being put on medication or finding another way of avoiding distraction, it shouldn’t
be a problem to anyone else. Hopefully some of our own teachers can read this and learn that headphones are not a distraction, but in fact keep students from being distracted from their peers when they’re trying to get their work done.