Next year, the school will be implementing a new schedule that will include a 30 minute “study hall” during the school day for those who are struggling in class. There are many students and teachers who have opposed this, and I am one of them. Though this may seem like a good idea in theory, there are many things wrong with adding this plus period to our schedule.

For this to work, there will be two minutes taken off passing periods, five minutes taken out of each class period, and nine minutes cut from lunch. Let’s start with the passing periods. Though Arlington High is smaller than a lot of schools, it is still a high school with lots of kids that can be difficult to navigate through during passing periods. There is always traffic around certain areas and this is not an issue with the school’s design, but more of a problem with the quantity of the students in the school. I go from E-Hall to A-Hall on A days, and though I walk straight to my location and barely ever stop to talk to people, I am always nearly late. If my schedule is like this next year, I will most likely be late every day, and this would be a problem, especially if the school decides to really crack down on tardies.

As for the reduction in class time, five minutes less may have the students jumping for joy but, for the teachers, some lessons are detailed and those extra five minutes are needed. I cannot come up with a specific argument for this since I myself am not a teacher, and personally the thought of missing those last five minutes of World History sounds awesome, but I can say that there is a likely possibility that this new schedule will be detrimental towards the lesson plans of some teachers.

What has me most upset though is the nine minutes cut from lunch. Nine whole minutes? That’s more than a fifth of the lunch period! Now you may say that I am overreacting, and I may be, but after sitting through three long class periods I really count on lunch. I love being able to just unwind and talk with my friends without worrying about school. Nine minutes is a lot of time, it is obvious to me when lunch is shortened now because of testing. Losing that time every day next year is really going to stink.

Besides the time reductions, another thing about this program is that it is supposed to help the students who are failing, but how? Is tutoring going to be offered from certain teachers during this period? Are there going to be lesson plans put together? Are there going to be worksheets available of work they may have missed? To me, 30 minutes is too short for any serious tutoring or teaching. Also, what about the students who aren’t struggling in class? Will they just be able to sit back and do nothing for 30 minutes? Though that idea seems appealing to some, I would much rather have my 45 minutes of lunch back over 30 minutes of just doing homework and being lazy. Also, how will they split up the kids who are passing and failing? Will they be like “Alright all of you with the bad grades go over here, and all of you with the passing grades go over here”? If not, then it will be easy to go through this period doing nothing, and therefore this will be a wasted effort to help struggling students. Also, this is HIGH SCHOOL. HIGH SCHOOL. No one is going to hold your hand if you are failing. Whether you are struggling in a subject or are just being lazy, figure it out yourself. If you don’t much care for your grades or for school in general, the concept of this plus period is wasted on you anyway.

With knowing so little about this program, it is hard for me to look past the negatives to see what they are envisioning. This is going to be a struggle for many students, especially for those taking dual credit courses. I am speaking for many of those in this school when I ask the administrators to please rethink this program.