As a high school student, I looked forward to study hall.  It was an opportunity to catch up on homework that I should have done the night before, to get extra help on a difficult subject, or to catch up on the current gossip.  Okay, so study hall wasn't designed for the gossip thing but I made it work for me.  By the time I was a senior, study hall had been eliminated from the school schedule and students had to adapt.  As sad as I was to say goodbye to study hall, as an educator I see the good-old-fashioned study hall as a waste of precious time.  Today there are a couple of options for the "new study hall".  The Washington Post reported this week on "flex time" in area schools.  The flex time concept allows for students to recieve assistance during the school day, eliminating the need for afterschool tutoring.  Students benefit by having access to all of their teachers whereas with traditional afterschool tutoring only certain teachers are available.  Schools systems benefit financially by eliminating the cost of afterschool tutors.  Another option is called "zero hour".  Schools that use this type of study hall typically start later than traditional schools.  Zero hour occurs before the school day.  In addition to being a study hall many clubs, sports, and other activities meet during this time.  Students benefit because they typically are not distracted by after school jobs.  However, I am not sure that high school students are awake enough to truly benefit from this type of schedule.  Again, school systems benefit because this type of study hall is built into to the school day which eliminates the after-school tutoring cost. Whether it is integrated during the course of the day or offered before classes begin, study hall is still an important part of the school day.