Opinion: Block schedule is better than seven periods
The current schedule at Starr’s Mill has students going to seven classes a day, but if there was a swap to block schedule the overall high school experience would improve. Block scheduling gives students a chance to get more work done, and have more time for out of school activities.
Do you ever think that you have too many classes to keep up with and not enough time?
We would have more time to get our work done and learn much more in class.
— Staff Writer Caroline Hubbard
Starr’s Mill students have seven classes a day that last approximately 51 minutes each. In that short period of time, many teachers give us a heavy load of homework and expect us to get a lesson in and do classwork. That’s way too much for students to do in that amount of time.
If we had a block schedule, we would have four classes a day for an hour and a half each with a longer lunch break between classes. We would have more time to get our work done and learn much more in class.
Students also would have more time to do homework after school. Right now, students are getting loads of work for seven different classes on top of having extracurricular activities. Many students do not have enough time to juggle all of this.
A common concern with the block schedule is that students won’t be able to take the extra classes that they like, but that is entirely untrue. Block schedule has students taking four different classes each semester: two academic and two that are personal preferences.
[W]ith block scheduling teachers can personalize the lessons better to help students succeed since they are seeing fewer students during the day.
— Staff Writer Caroline Hubbard
For example, in the first semester, a student might be taking English and math along with drama and health. Next semester, the student would be able to swap and take history and science along with P.E. and French. Some extra classes would be year-long, like chorus, band, and orchestra, meaning that in these cases the student would only rotate three of their four courses.
If the county does the block schedule, students that will go to college will better adjust to the college setting because they will be used to the version of this schedule. College students have fewer classes with more time to focus on each one, as you do with block schedule. Students won’t have as hard of time managing their time, which is a common issue with college freshmen.
A study conducted by The National Board of Professional Teaching Standards found that with block scheduling teachers can personalize the lessons better to help students succeed since they are seeing fewer students during the day.
If Fayette County swapped to block schedules, students would get a better and more in-depth education, while creating a more realistic experience in preparation for college.
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