Breaking with the seven-day block schedule rotation that has been instituted for 18 years, next year, the high school will transfer to a five-day rotation in which all classes will be held on Monday, with block scheduling on Tuesday through Friday.
We believe that a full schedule on Mondays will shift more schoolwork onto the weekends, when students will attempt to cram in almost twice as much homework in among their other activities, events, and necessary downtime.
Our proposal is to have one homework-free weekend per quarter. Balancing academics and extracurriculars is a constant struggle for many students. Everyone has had that Sunday-night-cram-all-of-the-weekend’s-homework experience, most likely more than once. It would be a relief, if once per quarter, the weekend could be a time for relaxation in which students are completely freed from their academic anxieties.
Additionally, teachers could allow themselves time away from grading homework assignments to focus on spending time with family and friends. With these breaks, students and teachers alike would be energized and ready to learn and teach for the following week.
It has been said that with the new schedule change, teachers will be more aware of the seven-class Mondays and assign less homework over the weekends. However, this would either result in a heavier homework load on weekdays or more content crammed into in-class lessons. Both of these alternatives go against the goals of the new schedule to alleviate student stress.
Homework on weekends disappoints most students, and they in turn put minimal effort into it. Weekend homework would not be so demotivating if students knew that they would soon have a free weekend.
With the new schedule designed to alleviate student stress, teachers and the administration should take the effort one step further in considering no-homework-weekends once a quarter. If the 2014-2015 school year is to be a test-run for change at PHS, we should take advantage of it and add one more change to the mix.