Last school year, BHS students were exposed to a seven-class schedule. While many believe seven classes allow students to have access to more electives, in my opinion, it’s just more homework and stress. The added period caused lunch times to change as well. We should not be eating lunch at 10 a.m.!

With the extra block, most classes were forced to cut down class time from an hour, to 51 minutes, which accumulates to over three weeks of lost lecture time. Shorter class time leaves teachers and students feeling rushed through lessons and coursework. Personally, I feel like I never finish anything in class, which ends up affecting my homework load significantly. I feel like I am doing most of my learning at home and rarely have time to fully understand what is being taught in class. It’s very emotionally draining and definitely has a negative impact on the students and teachers.

From a student perspective I notice the toll it’s taking on my peers. There is so much on our plates with such little time to accomplish everything. While we are doing piles and piles of homework, we are expected to be at every sports practice, while doing community service, and sometimes working a part time job. This is completely unfair and unrealistic not only to the students but to the teaching staff as well. I fear we are all being stretched too thin.

Now, teachers often assign classwork that isn’t finished during class for homework, and I think that is caused by the shorter class periods. Although I appreciate being able to have more variety in the classes I choose to take, I feel like it is too much too soon. I see freshmen doing five hours of homework a night, while when I was a freshman I barely had an hour of homework. As a current junior, I have been subject to many of the different schedule changes during my time at BHS, and there has been nothing quite like this. I miss being able to have TGA everyday and only have one long block on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Another con to having seven classes are the two blocks after lunch. I find myself struggling to stay awake during those last two blocks. If you have first lunch, it’s worse because you basically have three classes after lunch. It makes the last few hours of the school day feel like a blur. It’s also added stress for those who participate in sports and extracurriculars. We are exhausted by 1:55 p.m.
Overall, I believe that having seven classes, while it does have some benefits, only adds to the already existing pressures of high school.