Full block schedule would be more beneficial

It’s 2 a.m. on a Monday morning, and everyone in the house is sound asleep—except for junior Aneesa Mazumdar who is frantically scrawling down her AP U.S History notes. Finally at 3 a.m., she collapses onto her bed.

Mazumdar is not alone in her plight. Thanks to the partial block schedule, many students find themselves staying up late on Sunday nights trying to finish seven classes’ worth of homework. In order to lighten this burden, the school is considering a full block schedule, a welcome change for overstressed students.

The new schedule calls for alternating “red” and “blue” days, each with four classes each day. If a week began with a “red” day, which includes periods one, three, five and seven, the following week would start with a “blue” day, which includes periods two, four, six and eight. In a two week cycle, students will have attended each of their classes five times.

The new schedule would halve the amount of homework due on Monday, reducing the amount of stress for the beginning of the week and allowing students to use their weekends to spend time with family or participate in extracurricular activities.

In addition, school would start at 8:35 a.m on Tuesday and Thursday. The two late start days give students more time for some much needed sleep, similar to the current late-start Wednesdays. This way, students will be more attentive and eager to learn in class.

Tutorials would be changed to every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, after the first class of the day. Many students use tutorial to study for an upcoming test later in the day, but the current Wednesday tutorial occurs after the school day is over, nullifying this capability.

Also, many students simply leave during tutorial since it is impossible to keep students on campus. It is more beneficial to move tutorial to a more advantageous time when students can use it to its fullest potential.

Moreover, the current Monday schedule is not very efficient. By the time students have settled down and announcements have been made, teachers are left with very little time. As a result, teachers are pressured to beat the clock, and may compromise the quality of a lesson in order to finish teaching a lesson.

Although foreign langauge and math teachers may argue that daily practice is needed to improve, the current Monday schedule gives little time to do this.

The new schedule would effectively eliminate the hectic 47-minute periods and make class time more productive. Teachers would see students only twice every other week, but the time spent in each class would be about same, and the amount of material covered would not change. In addition, students could utilize the three integrated tutorials should they need extra help or clarification.

Not only does the schedule benefit academic classes, but it also helps the athletic programs. A full block schedule would allow athletic practices to start earlier on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Athletes would not have to stay out late and can hurry home to complete homework, or eat an early dinner. Moreover, athletes would not miss as much class time when being pulled out to play in games.

A full block schedule would provide the relaxation necessary to remain sane in such an academically competitive school. Finally, students will no longer dread Mondays, but will be excited to learn after a good weekend’s rest.