Cacoethes Scribendi

Shock and outrage rang throughout the school today when the principal announced that we would be sacrificing our A-day/B-day scheduling for a more economical 7-period-a-day schedule. My mom told me that there was an article in the newspaper about it, and that the student council representative that was present had said that absolutely no students wanted to go to a 7-period schedule.

Simply put, he’s right. While I’ve heard arguments that many subjects (e.g. math and foreign languages) need to be practiced every day, in reality doing so is tiring and taxing. The majority of people I associate with are involved in extra-cirriculars, and having two nights to do any homework assignment is incredibly beneficial for their schedules. Thanks to the school board setting our start time an hour later, I’ve had plenty of school nights where I haven’t gotten home until after 8 this semester alone. Marching season was another question entirely; the earliest I ever got home any night of the week was shortly before 6, and Monday nights I never once stepped foot inside my house before 9 PM. (The homework assigned that day could, thankfully, be put off until Tuesday.)

I concede quite easily that this will save us money. Two million dollars is a grave amount, and it’s hard to argue with such a figure; except that such money could have been saved if we had not, say, built a certain three million dollar field house for the football players last year.

Jesus Christ, I hadn’t even intended to make this about the schedule change. I was going to write about an entirely different set of complaints I have.