In the average busy but dreary Monday morning at Hall High School, students are tired, overworked and not in the best of moods. As they trudge into period three, they are greeted with a set of monotonous morning announcements, propelling them into worse moods, or for some, a nap. 

However, there is hope. The world does not have to keep functioning in this repetitive, gloomy way. Here are some improvements that can be made to the dull announcements of yester years. 

First, add a guest speaker.  In this day and age, you can program your Siri to have a British or Australian accent, you can change your GPS to the voice of Yoda, and you can even change your Alexa to the voice of Samuel L. Jackson. 

This begs the question: Why do we still have a Hall High School student reading the morning announcements? If students wanted to hear the voice of a Hall High School student, they could simply turn to one of the 1447 students lurking around the school. 

Morning announcements seems like the perfect opportunity to add a refreshing voice to brighten everyone’s day. We could take a similar approach to the Amazon Echo and have Samuel L. Jackson’s voice, or we could have someone else’s’ voice like Morgan Freeman, Cardi B, Mr. T, that clown from It, Peter Griffin, Stewie Griffin or maybe Lil Wayne. The possibilities are endless.

Second idea is we replace the Pledge of Allegiance with a song.  I get that people like to pledge their allegiance to the United States, but I don’t see the need to reinforce this allegiance every single morning. 

I think whoever wants to pledge their allegiance should say it once during the announcements on the first day of school, and if they would like to un-pledge their allegiance, they can say it backwards or something to themselves in their own time. 

Also, the whole “Under God” part seems a little iffy these days. Besides, there are many other patriotic songs – like the song “America” by Macklemore,  or the classic Fergie rendition of the National Anthem – that could take its place.

Third, announce what periods the Career Center is closed for the day.  On a more serious note, it would be very helpful to know what periods the Career Center is closed. I don’t enjoy walking all the way down that hallway just to be shut down by a sign on the door. 

By following these key steps, the morning announcements will be much more tolerable and give students a brighter start to their school days. If we all work together to tweak them – maybe by replacing the quote of the day with a joke of the day or other small adjustments – the morning announcements will be not only less tedious, but will even be a source of excitement for the students.