In late September of 2022, a law was passed, requiring all Arizona schools, public and charter, to provide students with a 1-2 minute period for a moment of silence. This gives them a set time for students to just relax and think. Along with that, schools are also required to give students a chance to recite the Pledge of Allegiance every day.

At Sahuaro, we have this moment of silence every day before our daily announcements and some people find it to be a complete waste of time. While it can be nice having a specific time to meditate each morning, most people just talk to their friends during the moment of silence. I’ve asked over forty Sahuaro students, all in different classes, what their class does during the moment of silence and more than half of them said that their class just talks through it. I also asked each of them if their class did the pledge of allegiance and only one of them said that they did it. They said that they only do it because their teacher tells them to. I didn’t just ask people from Sahuaro though. I also asked people from three other TUSD schools and they, more or less, said the same thing. They either talked to their friends or did work during the moment of silence and none of them did the Pledge of Allegiance. When I asked my friend, who goes to Sabino, about it he said, “My school doesn’t even do a moment of silence.”

Overall, this new policy is mostly pointless and it’s kind of a waste of time.