Many students debate about block day schedules and whether they are beneficial or not. A block schedule is a school bell schedule where students only have a couple periods per day, but the class times are extended. At CHS, students have this schedule every day, with three alternating two-hour class periods.
Block day schedules are beneficial to students due to the academic and home life benefits that longer class periods offer. Even with these benefits, there are still many students at CHS who have differing opinions on these schedules.
Many students enjoy the block schedule since there is a much smaller workload at home for students due to the long classes having extra non-instructional time. This allows for an opportunity to do homework in class, leaving less work to be done at home. A lighter workload helps students in the long run, especially if they participate in extracurriculars such as sports or jobs, which can limit the time these students have to do schoolwork on their own personal time.
This prevents students from having to worry about assignments being due daily since they don’t have the same classes every day. Since students only have three classes per day, many only have to bring a couple school items for each of their classes every day rather than carrying everything needed for all six periods.
It is true that long class periods may make students lose interest faster, due to possible short attention spans. Lots of experts say that short form videos online can hinder students’ attention spans, affecting their academic performance. While this is true, students can gradually be given breaks granted by their teacher if deemed appropriate. This can help keep the students focused on the task at hand. CHS student interviewees said that their Biology and English teachers give their class breaks during long lessons in order to keep their students fully engaged during lessons.
Furthermore, students can get more learning in general with longer and more content-filled class periods. The longer periods provide teachers with more time to teach important content, such as formulas in a math class or events in history classes. Alongside this, if a student has a test in class that ends up taking longer than expected, the long class periods can allow students to finish their test and improve their grade. Therefore, longer class periods help students with their education by giving more time to learn.
Because students learn more content, have less homework and only have to worry about two or three classes per day, block day schedules are very beneficial to many students, especially at CHS. In the future, more schools nationwide should adopt the everyday block day schedule in order to improve their students’ education and ensure future success.
