For millions of high schoolers in the United States, lunchtime is seen as an opportunity in a student’s frantic schedule to take a break from back to back classes, sit down with a group of friends, and eat. However, many schools nowadays are looking to off-campus lunch as another alternative. I believe that off-campus lunches should be an available option for all high school students at most twice a week, because it serves as a reward for high achieving students and could potentially teach college-bound students real-life skills such as time and money management. 

One reason why students should be allowed to eat lunch off the school campus is because it can be seen as a reward for any high-achieving students. With the policy here at Centennial High School, Juniors and Seniors are eligible to eat off campus if they have good grades and high attendance. This can potentially motivate any students who wish to have the ability to eat off-campus to raise their grades and to come to every class on time. As with any appealing privilege, people will do whatever it takes to make sure they can meet the requirements needed to do it. Just like with the athletic department at CHS, athletes make sure to raise their grades in order to be able to play the sports that they love. 

Another reason off-campus lunch should be an available option to high schoolers is because it can serve as a learning opportunity to students on how to manage your time and money wisely. This is also an especially crucial time to high schoolers everywhere, seeing as how in a few years time, college could potentially be something in their foreseeable future. Students must find a way to exit the school, find some way of transportation to the fast food joint (or wherever it is they want to eat), eat their food, then find a way to make it back to class in time, all within a certain time range. In order to do so, the student must find the most efficient way to make all their important points and destinations while also keeping track of the time they have left. For college-bound students, this is a great way to not only prepare them for college life, but to prepare them for adult life as well. Having to manage your time wisely is an everyday thing that nearly all adults have to go through. From regulating the time when they wake up, to their work schedules, deadlines, quotas, and assignments, adults are no definitely no stranger to time management. 

Something that students going off campus for lunch have to keep track of is how they manage their money. In order to have lunch at their favorite restaurant everyday, students need to keep track of their weekly or daily budget. Just like with keeping track of time, keeping track of one’s own money and weekly spending is also something that will come up later in life, and is an important part of being an adult. If someone has a job, they need to learn how to evenly distribute their money throughout their daily life. As a bonus, they could potentially learn to not splurge on any unnecessary investments, as their scheduled budget would go towards their lunch every week. 

Something that people against off-campus lunches argue is that having it as an option could potentially endanger the lives of students when they drive to and from school to get their food. To counter that, students allowed to go off school campus for lunch should be responsible enough to drive to and from school. If a regulation is in place granting only those with admirable attendance rates and grades, these students should have no trouble taking any sort of transportation to and from the school. If they have already proven themselves responsible by meeting these requirements, then they are responsible enough to abide by all traffic laws, and make a proper decision on whether or not it’s safe to ride in a certain person vehicle. 

Off-campus lunches need to become a universal choice for high-schoolers once or twice a week because it could potentially be a reward for higher achieving students and influence them to improve their grades and attendance rates.  This can serve as a learning opportunity to teach money and time management, and if implemented correctly, would not put any students coming to and from school in danger of a traffic accident.