Earlier this year, it was announced that the 2016/17 schedule would change from an eight period schedule to a seven period one. As the news of this change spread, students began to get upset, and protest next year’s schedule for various reasons, the main one being the fact that a seven period schedule leaves very little room for electives, especially for IB Diploma and candidate students. Among the questions and concerns that surfaced around the schedule, two stood out from the others: why are we changing a schedule to fit mostly one department, and why must this new schedule be implemented immediately?

The schedule that has been chosen is a three by two block schedule, which allows classes to meet four times a week. Although students were called into multiple meetings about the schedule, and informed briefly of the reasons for the changes, which have to do with IB hours and the number of math minutes, there is still a great amount of ambiguity surrounding the reasoning behind the transition, and how it will improve our school as a whole.

The new schedule allows for more IB hours, and increased math hours. Although the increased frequency may affect classes such as math positively, it is extremely detrimental to other areas of the school. Deep learning, as in labs, Socratic seminars, debates, writing workshops, and the creation of original work simply can’t be conducted productively in periods as short as 53 minutes, the new class length. Our schedule should not be centered on improving one department; it should be centered on balancing all the departments in our school evenly, and finding something that works efficiently for all.

Additionally, students have been given almost no say in this schedule change. Seeing as we, along with teachers, are the ones spending five days a week in the school, it seems as though our opinions and concerns should be considered. If our school becomes primarily about improving test scores in certain areas, but not encompassing learning as a whole, what is the point? As of now, students have the freedom to take classes such as theater, art, journalism, and more. With this new schedule, students would be forced to put required classes over the classes they love in some cases, which does not embody the core reason and principle behind learning.

For IB diploma students, this new schedule proposal creates an especially big problem. Students participating in the two-year program will have six of their seven class slots filled during two semesters, and seven filled for two semesters, with room for almost no electives. While some students may have their credits completed, others might have to take a zero^th hour class, meaning they will have to dedicate their time before or after school. In a junior meeting, an IB diploma student went as far as to say that she “would not have chosen to take the IB Diploma” if she had known about the upcoming schedule change. With a year’s warning, students could make an educated decision as to whether they wanted to dedicate all but one of their classes to IB. Why must the schedule change now? What would waiting one year to give students warning be so completely horrible?

As a student body, we deserve to have these questions answered. We deserve to know the exact reasons that our schedule will be changing now, and is currently not improving all aspects of our school. As of now, AHS prides itself in valuing student-teacher relationships and a love for learning. In a 90-minute schedule, we have time to develop these things, but this new schedule is oriented towards test scores, defining us only as numbers on a page.