Shorter Classes Would Be a Net Educational Gain

Sophomore+Victoria+Vuicich+said+some+parts+of+the+school+day+could+be+used+more+efficiently.+

Dennis Racket

Sophomore Victoria Vuicich said some parts of the school day could be used more efficiently.

School is a very interesting place with many interesting rules and regulations. Here at North Atlanta, we have 20-minute lunch periods, eight minute transitions between class periods, and one hour and 33-minute class periods. Interesting enough, the amount of time we have for lunch is illegal in the state of Georgia. The minimum number of minutes for lunch in the state of Georgia is 30 minutes, yet we have a 20 minute lunch period. We also have class periods that are way too long considering most teachers don’t teach the whole class period and some don’t even teach at all. Only a few teachers use up most of the class time. This needs to change.

Unfortunately, there is way too much time in the school day to shorten our class periods to the time length that they should be. Honestly, class should only be 45 to 55 minutes long in which the teacher teaches you what you need to know, and then gives you homework. School would end so much earlier and everyone would have so much more time in their life. There would be way less stress as well. I find myself sitting on my phone or watching Netflix sometimes in some of my classes for half the period, and sometimes the whole class period! Yes, I could be more productive, but sometimes I don’t have homework from other classes on me, and do you realize how much motivation people have at school? So much less time would be wasted if this actually changed. Anyway, this will never change so let’s move on.

Now, to solve one problem, lunch can be 32 minutes if we shorten each class by three minutes, because what’s three minutes? Oh yeah, its 12 extra minutes of lunch to chill out. Lunch is my time where I can socialize with people and give my brain a break. It also includes the rants about what this teacher did, or what that teacher did, and it feels great to get it off your chest with other people who agree with you. Not to mention, we’re also making the lunch period legal. Would you look at that! You have a problem, so you find a solution!

Here to solve another problem, we could take ten minutes from each class period and create a 40 minute study hall period that is incorporated into the schedule as a class period with your advisement class and teacher. Class would be one hour and 20 minutes which is still more than enough time for class. In study hall, students will actually do something: study. Students can also catch up on homework, assignments and study for that test they have next period. I find that this will be super helpful for us students here at North Atlanta.

All of this is reasonable. There is absolutely no problem with this new proposed schedule. I mean ask yourself: do you really learn more with those three extra minutes of class? Your answer is most likely no. Do you think you will obtain enough information for a class in an hour and 20 minute time period? Your answer is probably yes. So why don’t we start managing our time usefully and change a few things around here?