One part of school that I enjoyed was walking in the hallways while there was music playing. It didn’t matter what kind, as long as it was on the piano. I couldn’t help but feel as though I was in a movie. I found it entertaining to see what kinds of songs people would play, which many of my peers also enjoyed hearing. Despite the support for the piano among the student body, the school decided to remove it in fall of 2021. But was that for better or for worse?

School starting at 7:30 AM takes a toll on students. Typically, classes taking place closer to the start of school are filled with tired students who want nothing other than to go home. This can lead to worse moods among students and disengaged classes. However, having the piano available for students to use may be able to raise student morale.

“I liked it when people played the piano in the morning; it gave the school a nice ambience. I feel like it really improved my mood in the mornings too, ” says sophomore Jenna Elsamman. With the other solutions to this issue being more difficult to accomplish, such as having schools start later, leaving the piano open to students in the morning is a much easier and accessible way to solve the ‘tired’ problem. 

Aside from that, the piano also encouraged students to be more creative. Last year, I tried learning how to play the piano, with one of my main motivations being to play a song for my friends. Sophomore Alex Brichkov also agrees with this, saying that having the piano open to students “allows people to express their creativity”. 

On the flip side, having the piano always be opened to students can be disruptive. I had an English class in the A100 hallway last year, and people would frequently play the piano while class was going on. It became so distracting that my teacher would have to pause the lesson just to tell the person(s) playing the piano to stop. This shows how obnoxious having the piano could be to some people, especially to classes in the A100 hallway.

Despite this downside, though, many students are in favor of keeping the piano opened for student usage. This begs the question: should it be opened for student usage despite the fact that it can be disruptive? 

Even though the piano can be disruptive, there are too many positives of keeping it to ban students from using it entirely. Plus, the primary reason as to why it shouldn’t be open for students can be solved by implementing more regulations for when students can use the piano. For example, the piano could be open for students during the morning and after school, and it can be locked while classes are in session. This would eliminate the issue of the piano disrupting classes, while also allowing students to use the piano during appropriate times.