There Isn’t Enough Time In One Day

Sophomore Clara Cullterson is among all North Atlanta students who have had to cope with a longer school day.

Dennis Racket

Sophomore Clara Cullterson is among all North Atlanta students who have had to cope with a longer school day.

Do we really need an extra 30 minutes of fourth period? We have already learned enough within the hour and a half of our fourth period. This makes things more stressful for every student such as student athletes, students with jobs, teachers with a life outside of school, and students who are on the bus for an hour. The traffic is bad, and students and teachers are tired. Even though we start later than most other high schools, the school day feels longer than when you get home and rest. If it isn’t required by the state, than why does APS feel the need to add in those days?

There are many students at North Atlanta High School who are involved in sports, including myself. When I ran cross country last fall, we had to be at the bus stop at 4:00 pm, which is right when school is ending now. I know it is like that with other sports, I’ve asked my friends about it. If certain sports teams need to leave at 4:00 or earlier, we will all have to be dismissed early. I don’t think that the administration would want us to miss the extra 30 minutes of class.

Secondly, the issues surrounding the traffic will be worse. Rush hour usually starts around 3:30 pm, and we get out at 3:45 pm. From personal experience of being a licensed driver, I have realized that rush hour gets worse at 4:15-4:30, especially on the highway. There are many teachers who live in other countries, so they take the highway to get to school. I have been on the highway after school to get to places, and it’s pretty bad. According to Fiza Pirani from the AJC, Atlanta was ranked no.11 on the global list for worst traffic in 2016. Even though the traffic at 3:45 versus the traffic at 4:15 doesn’t seem different, traffic quickly escalates in Atlanta, ask anyone and they will agree with me.

I do not think that an extra 30 minutes of class will improve our standardized test scores or even improve our overall grades depending on the student. Although, I think that a 30 minute study/tutorial session will help us as students. Even though it may not seem like it, you can get a lot of work done in 30 minutes. If you are at school with teachers helping you with your work, it will be a breeze to get some work and studying done. It would not change our schedule at all, considering our fourth periods will be longer because of the 30 minutes, we could just take the extra time away from fourth period. I don’t know why teachers are still getting on students for not doing homework or studying, when this is a viable option!

Overall, the better option was to take a few days away from the winter break we have in February. Personally, I wouldn’t of had a problem with it, considering all of our past winter breaks have only been five days instead of a full week. Since the extra time isn’t even required by the state, APS should just give us students a break! I wake up early, and go to bed late because of all of this homework! I have a life that requires sleep, so I can get things done easily. From what I know, most people can agree with me on everything that has been stated here.