THIS IS A STUDENT EDITORIAL AND DOES NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE OPINION OF THE LONGFELLOW ADMINISTRATION.

When our parents went to middle school, the most exciting part was finally getting a locker.  Nowadays, students no longer seem to care. Lockers are not used as much anymore. People carry all their school supplies and study materials to every class in their backpacks. 

They have given us five minutes in between every class, and to waste it going to your locker and depositing everything, then having to come back is just an inefficient use of time. It can waste all of those 5 minutes if your locker jams or you encounter another problem. It is much simpler just to take it all in your backpack, and in these five allotted minutes, you could go to the bathroom or use your time more productively. On the bright side, in the past, they only gave us 4 minutes, so now, we are relatively lucky.

However, not everything about the lockers is bad. As you walk throughout the halls, you see some people using their lockers as gathering spots to meet with their friends before they head to their other classes. 

One student, seventh grader Sophia W., says that she stores almost everything in her locker, making her day much easier.  She does not have to lug around the 40 pounds of backpack we middle schoolers have gotten used to. However, even she, one of the most avid locker users around, does admit the major defect of the lockers. 

“When my classes are far away from (my locker), it’s a pain to go back to it every single time,” said Sofia.

As Sofia pointed out, lockers have multiple good uses like being a place for talking, giving out candy, other group activities, and creating an instant rendezvous spot. However, in my opinion, lockers in middle schools are not necessary.  

Although I believe that lockers will never be totally obsolete, the arrow keeps pointing down on the number of people that use them due to their inconveniences and the alternative method of just taking your backpack to class.  

In conclusion, I believe lockers are not worth the trouble; their glory days when our parents were growing up are long gone, and the era of lockers has run its course.