Full block schedule would be more beneficial

At the dawn of a new school week, every student is filled with a sense of dread. An ominous task looms before them: to survive another hectic Monday crammed with a full day of 45 minute periods.

Rewind the clock back to 2007, however, and you would find that all classes were held on a current Monday schedule without time for tutorial. While Monday schedules once a week seems bad, students do not realize how fortunate they are that the subsequent days are on a block schedule. Ideally, a full block schedule would be beneficial to the chaotic lifestyles of today’s students. A full block would entail switching off between A and B days and having four classes on each day, with a schedule similar to those of Prospect and Los Gatos High Schools.

Mondays already have a terrible reputation—with the weekend coming to a close and five days of hard work ahead of them, students already feel overwhelmed and having all classes on one day only increases the burden. Reducing stress by switching to a full block schedule that includes Mondays would provide a better start to the week and would give students a more positive attitude. In turn, students would be more focused and productive, and this would likely continue throughout the week.

A full block schedule would also allow more time on the weekends for relaxation or extracurricular enrichment. Currently, the weekends of many students are consumed with homework for every single class and rarely contain time for activities of the students’ choosing, such as catching up on sleep or pursuing nonacademic interests. However, only having four classes on Mondays would halve the amount of homework due at the start of the week.

In reality, 45-minute classes hardly provide enough time to accomplish much after general announcements and updates from teachers. By the time students have settled and the teacher has begun, so little can be achieved with the remainder of the time and students are practically ready to move onto the next class. This time would be put to better use if used for a full block schedule, even if classes would meet slightly less often, because more work could be done in a more timely manner.

Additionally, a full block schedule accommodates a much larger variety of students. With more time, teachers can use a mix of different teaching styles to benefit of a wider range of students. Teachers would also have extra time to plan and prepare for lessons, ensuring the best, most productive lessons possible.

Last year, a full block schedule was considered in which there would be eight periods, four tutorials per week, and four classes a day. With the proposed schedule, student athletes with seven classes would not have to miss class time, and the same amount of information would be taught over the course of the year, just at a more manageable pace.

However, teachers voted 42-27 against the switch. Departments like foreign language and performing arts tend to prefer meeting more often to practice and reinforce skills more effectively, but homework can supplement the learning done in class and the advantages of a full block largely outweigh this.

A full block schedule would be largely beneficial to the entire school. Beyond simply ridding the school week of the typical hectic Monday, having longer class periods would increase focus and the amount of learning done in class, and students would have more time on the weekends unoccupied by homework. Without the typical chaotic, jam-packed schedule, students and teachers alike might actually learn to appreciate Mondays.