Block scheduling is way more sufficient and beneficial for students than traditional scheduling. Block scheduling is when each student goes to four out of eight classes everyday, followed by GPs at the end of the day. Then, each set of 4 classes is rotated every other day, meaning each class lasts 90 minutes.  This is what gives us our A and B days. Roughly 30% of our nation uses block scheduling rather than traditional scheduling.

A district survey was recently conducted amongst students to decide if we should continue using  block scheduling, or change back to traditional scheduling. Thankfully, we got to keep block scheduling around because it is highly favored by students and also the more superior option between the two. 

First, the survey was sent out to teachers, and then eventually the students. Block scheduling won by double the amount of votes for standard scheduling. That is how we were able to keep block scheduling, due to over half of the student body agreeing to keep this type of scheduling.

Only having four classes a day with 90 minutes in each class means that students have time to both learn and work on assignments. According to educationlearning.com, block scheduling is more beneficial because it gives students more time to dive deeper on their subject’s learning since they have more time. Teachers are able to cover more material, and spend more time helping their students fully understand their lessons, leading to less workload on students’ lives. 

With traditional scheduling, students would only have time to learn from each class and would be stuck with homework from all seven or eight classes they take. This is most especially detrimental to the students who are involved in extracurricular activities and students having advanced/AP classes, which are both highly encouraged to take by schools. This leads to a lot students having to stay up extra late to work on all of the seemingly endless homework for all eight of their classes.  Not to mention students  have a life  outside of school that they also have to consciously attend to.

Students staying up late always leads to students getting a lack of sleep; this can also be extremely harmful for a student that has to get up and go to school, learn a ton of material for eight hours, and then be extremely tired. A lack of sleep amongst students causes a multitude of physical, emotional, and mental health problems. 

According to the CDC, teenagers should be getting 8 to 10 hours of sleep every night. With so much homework, how would students be able to meet the amount of sleep hours they need and deserve. Sleep deprivation can also cause academics to start slipping and that defeats the whole purpose of wanting what’s best for the students. Which is why traditional scheduling would not be our most successful option. This only means students get stuck in a cycle that is harmful to them.

Clearly, based on all of these reasons, we believe that block scheduling is so much better. Keeping this schedule for the rest of our, and future students  high school years is very beneficial. We are, and will be able to learn more, retain information, focus better in class, have plenty more time to complete homework, and even lead to us students practicing healthier sleeping habits.