Every student knows the feeling of desperation and despair when you have to use the restroom but are out of bathroom passes. You constantly glance at the clock, but time seems to have slowed, and you can’t focus on your work because your screaming bladder distracts you from getting any work done. If this scenario isn’t familiar, then you’ve been blessed with teachers who allow unlimited bathroom breaks. Consider yourself lucky.
While I understand that limited bathroom breaks are intended to increase time spent in class, I believe they do more harm than good.
If a student is exploiting an unlimited bathroom pass class, then they are only hurting themselves and will have to accept the consequences. Most students only use the bathroom when they feel the need, not to get out of class. Besides, by the time of high school, students should be responsible enough to go the bathroom without permission. In a few months, our seniors will be living on their own and paying taxes, yet they currently have to ask permission to use the bathroom.
Additionally, we need to stop thinking about school as a prison that we need to escape. When teachers place a limit on bathroom trips, they are only adding to the concept that a classroom is a torturous trap in which students need permission to come and go.
Some teachers justify their bathroom limit by allowing any unused passes to be turned in for extra credit. This is also unfair because it makes no sense for my academic grade to be dependent on anything but my work. Why should my grade be rewarded for my ability to resist the natural urge to urinate?
Of course, I do believe there are examples of times in class when a bathroom break would not be appropriate such as during a lecture or a fellow classmate’s presentation. But during work time, it shouldn’t be an issue for a student to quickly relieve themselves, especially if it’ll help them focus.
A bathroom break shouldn’t be a big deal. If the need occurs then one should be able to simply leave the classroom and return within five minutes. It’s time for students to be treated as adults and responsibility to freely go to the bathroom is a good place to start.