Sequoyah’s high school has a very interesting campus, which it shares with the Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church. Yet, despite its inviting appearance, with the main building resembling a treehouse, once you have spent a couple months, or even years at the school, you start to notice how small the campus can feel. This leads to students and teachers seeking out their own places to get a break or a moment of peace and quiet. What ways have people found to work around this less-than-ideal situation? What can still be done?
When asked about the private places at the high school, Rachel Youngstrom ’26 said “there are all these little corners. I think I finally found all of them.” Youngstrom mentioned that, at the K-8 campus, which she attended for nine years, it is harder to find privacy because the campus is more open, meaning the spaces she has found at the high school have felt nice. Kat Waxman ’26 enjoys sitting in the meditation garden and also a couple of classrooms where there is “an unspoken rule that you’re not supposed to be loud.” During lunch, which is the main time students have a long break where they have the opportunity to be by themselves, she often goes from one of these spaces to the other. Sometimes, however, they are not available for meetings or other events, which slightly disrupts Waxman’s lunch plans: “I like consistency.” Youngstrom has also noticed the issue of rooms being taken, especially on rainy days. “If the space is already taken, I’ll hang out on the balcony a lot,” she said. She will occasionally walk the courtyard labyrinth because she finds it relaxing and has found a couple other little corners on campus, including outside room 22. Both Youngstrom and Waxman agree it is helpful and important to continue to have these quiet spaces on campus, with Waxman saying, “I feel like I would struggle a lot more if there weren’t quiet places to sit.” Youngstrom also observed people being loud can be very overwhelming, so having a quieter space to get away can be helpful. Overall, students appreciate the quiet spaces they’ve found on the high school campus, though they wish there were more to enjoy.
Teachers, meanwhile, seem to be even more concerned with the lack of quiet spaces than the students. When asked about whether or not she felt there were enough places for teachers to go and work, biology teacher Kate Schafer said, “I would say that there are definitely times that it is hard to find a quiet space.” She went on to provide a recent example from when she had to sit outside to have a Zoom interview, but midway through, another teacher’s class came outside and sat nearby. This made it very difficult for her to do this important task, leading to her finding another spot. The reason Schafer had to sit outside was there were no classrooms available during her planning period. She says this is “because there’s a lot more students, [so] there’s a much greater percentage of classes and classrooms being utilized every block” than when she started, meaning that many teachers end up outside. But this can become a problem when there is bad weather, like rain and heat, leading many teachers, including Schafer, to leave campus altogether when they have a planning period. However, this can be quite disruptive, and she would really prefer to not have to drive and leave campus just to be able to get some work done. And it’s not just an inconvenience; Schafer also thinks it interferes with her ability to be a good teacher. “I think a lot of times when I’m on campus and trying to do work there’s a lot of interruptions,” she says. “It’s hard to successfully use my prep time.”
But why do teachers have stronger opinions than students on this topic? “Students have so little time on their own,” notes Schafer. “The school day is mostly scheduled.” (Teachers have at least one 80-minute planning period Monday through Thursday.) However, one thing seems pretty consistent throughout the interviews conducted: the sense that some things could and should be done. Schafer mentioned having study cubicles that could be possibly set up in the Sanctuary where students and teachers could work when they need a quiet space; these could be taken down at night. Youngstrom brought up the idea of having some more places to sit including benches or tables around campus, allowing for even more quiet spaces scattered about. And she even dreamed big with the idea of couches and comfortable seats in more classrooms, including the Sanctuary: “I want throw pillows for my advisory.” Even if some of these ideas are unlikely, we can still hope for and think outside of the box when it comes to supporting all Sequoyah high school students and faculty in their day to day needs.
