As a senior at West, I’ve had my fair share of schedules. My freshman year alone we had three schedules, all of which were because of the COVID-19 pandemic. My sophomore year, we went back to the “normal schedule,” with the standard 4×4 block schedule, but with a 10 minute QT (Quality Time) and 30 minute grade-level based CCR (College and Career Readiness). That year, rumors spread about a potential new schedule.
The two year plan saw the abandonment of QT and CCR for flextime and Advisement. Advisement was just a rebranding of CCR, however this new Flextime would be 30 minutes onto second block, staying with your second block teacher and essentially becoming a study hall. I found Flextime very helpful, a good use of time and many other teachers that I talked to during Flextime thought the same. The chance for students to come in and get the chance to talk to teachers about their problems in the classroom, or half an hour to listen to music. With my heavy involvement in journalism, I saw it as a great chance to interview people for my stories, without taking them out of class.
With Advisement/CCR, I saw little to no benefit with any college prep, or high school help in general. The only thing I remember over the past four years was the Zooms we had in our class, with the one phrase, “Don’t dig yourself into a hole.” You didn’t learn how to dig yourself out of the hole, only to not do it. Like telling your new puppy to stop chewing on your shoes. It doesn’t solve a problem.
But that wasn’t the big change to come. The big change was this year’s new schedule, the A-B-A-B-C, wait no excuse me, Odd-Even-Odd-Even-All schedule. Being told the new schedule would be A-B-A-B-C, then changing the phrasing to Odd-Even-Odd-Even-All shows how the new schedule caused problems with something as small as the name. The same goes with when you have what class. And when you try to explain the new schedule to people from other schools, or former teachers, it just causes confusion. My main concern with this new schedule was my past experience with an alternating schedule at the middle school level. The big problem for me was how I never remembered anything from the one class I had that alternated, my Spanish class. It was already hard enough to learn a new language in seventh and eighth grade, yet alone all the other classes I would be taking as a senior, harder and much more time consuming classes.
I had also planned my classes around a 4×4 block schedule, not an alternating 4×4 block schedule. While the only thing it really affected was how many open blocks I would get as a senior, it was very annoying getting my schedule and seeing how my open blocks were spaced out to start the year. In total, I would have four open blocks throughout the year, third block (second block on odd days), seventh block (last block on odd days) and eighth block (last block on even days). These three were in the first half of the year. The second half of the year I had one open block, fifth block (third on odd days), however I ended up picking up a class to have a full schedule as a senior.
But I wasn’t the only one. In fact, when asking the seniors in my classes their thoughts on the new schedule, it has been pretty clear on what they think.
Here is what I found from other students around the school:
“Based on what I’ve experienced, I have a mixed opinion,” junior Sam Whittaker said. “It’s double the work compared to years prior which is my biggest criticism. It really depends on the class because there are some that benefit from it but I haven’t liked it or the idea of A-B-A-B-C schedule.”
This new schedule just does not work the way it was intended. And for seniors that have open campuses, they do like the schedule. But if you ask if they would still enjoy it if they had a full schedule, it’s a quick change from yes to no. As for everyone else, it’s full schedules for three years in a schedule they don’t like, until they finally can get a break from.
“This year has brought some new changes,” Senior Michael Bartholomew said. “It’s a totally different feeling to the school day, although it doesn’t really affect my days since I have two morning classes a day, with really only two different classes.”
Every time I start a new class, teachers bring up that the new schedule messes with everything that they have done in the past, and that the amount of students they have is too much. I haven’t heard a teacher say they enjoy this new schedule. It’s been complaints from all levels, and have even heard some administrators say they regret changing this schedule.
While I won’t be here for much longer, I still don’t like this new schedule, and I feel bad for those behind me. From the beginning this felt like an unnecessary change. As the old saying goes, if it ain’t broke, dont fix it.
