Block Out

Fourth day of school today, and the wear & tear is already starting to show.  You see, our high school had been on a 4x4 block schedule for the past 10 years or so.  That means the school day was 4x 90-minute class periods.  The kids took only 4 classes at a time, and since ours always had 1 class of band/gym alternating days, they never had more than 3 academic classes at a time.  Sometimes only two classes were really "serious".   And because the classes were so long each day, we found with our kids, at least, that homework was a rare occurrence.

But this year, the district switched back to a traditional schedule of 7 - 8 classes, 40 minutes a day, all year long.  The educator in me thinks this is far superior to block (we see one result at the college where I teach in the form of poor math placement scores due to extended time off from math).  But, I think it is really unfortunate that the youngest & his classmates had to make the transition with only one year left to go.  These kids are now adjusting to a heavier class load, actual homework because there is not time in class, the same full schedule of extra-curriculars, and at the same time, starting the college process, which is the equivalent of a class in and of itself, at least during fall semester..

Check out "early bird gym" -  zero hour, which means 6:20 a.m.  This is the child who prefers to sleep til noon then stay up til the wee hours of the a.m.  Full schedule then band after school.  He is exhausted, but won't admit it yet.

He chose this schedule, btw, after three years of not going for a challenge.  We are proud of him for not slacking senior year, but warned him that he had no idea what was coming with the end of block.  I think he is starting to figure it out.

P.S. That 2013-2014 course request list is new this year.  I was a little sad to see it since there won't be any 2013-2014 course requests!  At least not at this school.