Before winter break, students were given the news about the arrival of block scheduling, and many weren’t happy about it. This isn’t the first time that Santaluces have been on a block schedule, so there are varying opinions.

Even though block scheduling is done because of testing, it is extremely unnecessary and a waste of time. Block scheduling may be beneficial when it comes to getting work done, however, teachers focus too much on the amount of work being assigned, and not enough on the material being taught.

With the seven period days, almost all of the class time is spent learning lessons as opposed to putting students to work. This method is so much more effective because if the students are taught what they need to know and are sent home to complete an assignment, teachers will be able to tell if the students really have an understanding of the material that is being taught.

When it comes to block scheduling, students are in the same class for almost two hours, and most of the class they are taught for the first half and then they work for the rest. This may seem like an effective way to work with students, but in reality, students will not get the full understanding if they’re working with the lesson so fresh in their mind. In order to see if students truly understand what they are doing, they should be taught the lesson and then given a day to see if they really got it.

“Seven period days give us enough time to be interested in the subject and learn,” said Israel Taylor, junior. “But block scheduling is too long for students to pay attention the whole period, which compromises learning.”

Another reason that I dislike block scheduling so much is because we won’t have our classes back-to-back anymore. Instead of having every class every day, we will only have the class two or three days out of the week. This will lead to students procrastinating on their homework because they have an extra day to get it done, and this may seem as though it is helping students who have a lot of homework every day.