Recently water bottles have been “banned” from classrooms in fifth grade. Some people think that the water bottle ban is not necessary and creates more hassle for the students. There has been a debate between both sides. 

First let’s go through why water bottles were banned. Well we need to first understand why we have water. Fifth grade students were given the chance to bring in water bottles because of one key reason: There were no water fountains to drink from. Without water fountains students had to bring in water bottles, however this created a problem. Most water bottles were disruptive. They fall, spill, get in the way, and limit desk space.   

On Nov. 4 , all of the fifth teachers gathered to discuss the matter. They came to the conclusion that the water bottles should stay in the students’ lockers. Yes, this helps to get rid of some distractions, but it also makes something really easy very hard. Students used to be able to easily grab a drink. Now they have to ask the teacher, go to their locker and then make up any work they missed from the last minute.  This makes for a very disruptive process. 

The question is: Is there a better method? Yes! Some students had the idea of water bottle breaks. These have not been introduced yet, however  it is thought to be a good idea. The teachers have come up with this idea and yet they are not enthusiastic about it. Yes; it prevents students from playing with their water bottles, however having to ask the teacher is both disruptive and annoying. So in the end this is not a very great and effective method. As you know there are lots of pros and cons to this, so there is really no way to tell if this is good for us or not. Let’s go through some facts.

We know that water bottles were banned because of a lot of things. We now have working water fountains, which gives us more access to water. Another reason we got rid of them was because they kept falling and were very disruptive. They spilled on papers and books. One more disadvantage about water bottles is that kids take sips of water just so they can pull their masks down.

 Fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Perry said that, “A lot of kids use their water bottles to keep drinking and drinking and to keep their masks down.” However, not all the students did this and it is an unfair reason to ban water from students that did not. In all there are a lot of unfair things. 

And yet there are some positive things as well. Like you don’t have to worry about dropping your bottle and denting it. You also can’t be disruptive by drinking water. So either way there are pros and cons.