Please explain the rationale behind block scheduling for high schools

Great Debates
1

I know we have a number of professional educators on the boards, and I’d sure like to know the reasoning behind “block scheduling” for high school students.

I’m posting from Downstate Illinois, and they changed over to block scheduling (“BS”–heh…) several years ago. “BS” means that instead of having 8 different 45-minute classes a day, the student has “A” days and “B” days, and on an “A” day he’ll have 4 classes of 82 minutes each, and on a “B” day he’ll have 4 more 82-minute classes.

What this means, in actual practice, is that the teachers he sees on Thursday he won’t see again until the following Monday. How in the world is he supposed to keep Algebra, or Chemistry, or German fresh in his head with that kind of time lapse?

It also means that if he’s sick for a single day, he misses the equivalent of two days worth of school, since in that 82 minute time period, the teacher is actually teaching two days’ worth of lesson plans. And when he comes back after being sick, he’s behind the rest of the class and it’s very difficult to get back up to speed.

We have gone through this with The Cat Who Walks Alone, who is a senior this year. So far it has not been a “pleasant” high school experience for her. During her freshman year it frequently happened that she would have homework that she wouldn’t understand, but there was no way to get help from the teacher until several days in the future. And she was past the point where Mommy and Daddy could help her with her math (she was taking things like “Trig” and “Pre-Calc”. :rolleyes: ) By her sophomore year, she had it figured out much better, but that first year was tough…

And yes, I’m aware that “it’s just like in college!” We’ve heard that particular party line from educators for several years now, and I’d like to say to them, “Um, no, it isn’t, mainly because you’re dealing with 14-year-olds, instead of 18-year-olds.” I shouldn’t have to tell professional educators that there’s a world of difference between a Fourteen and an Eighteen, mainly in terms of self-discipline and time scheduling.

This year Bonzo is a freshman, and on his “A” days he has World Geography, English, Biology, and German, and on his “B” days he has Honors Algebra, P.E., Keyboarding, and Art. Obviously, his “B” days are his easy days.

And the reason this came up is last Monday he came down with a ferocious upper respiratory infection, fever, coughing, hacking, the works. But the first day of school was Tuesday, and The Cat Who Walks Alone said, “Yeah, if he misses that first week, he really misses a lot”.

Not only is there the coursework itself to deal with, and the big change from the intimacy of Middle School (junior high) to the noise and clamor of the Really Big High School (1,500 students), but also during that unofficial “first-week-of-school” orientation period, a normally totally paranoid and borderline Fascist administration (well, okay, not really, but they are pretty hardnosed) is willing to look the other way when freshmen wander around in the hallways, lost, without their photo IDs, or turn up in the wrong classroom, or are 30 minutes late to class because they were in Room 105 instead of Room 102.

And the teachers are going to be handing out the syllabus, which will be explained in class, so he wouldn’t want to miss that, and there will be discussions of what’s expected during the class year, and all kinds of important stuff.

So–he had to go to school. Sick as a dog. We dosed him heavily with Osco Multi-Symptom Cold Medication, and off he went, manfully slogging through four days of “A” and “B” classes, hanging in there.

I did some browsing on Google, and most of the hits I found tended to be on the negative side. There is one study posted, of Angola High School in Indiana, that is very positive. They’re claiming all kinds of positive results, up to and including “Increased library usage”, which to me is a statistic of questionable importance–maybe the teachers are just requiring more library research, instead of spending class time teaching.

http://www.msdsteuben.k12.in.us/ahs/stats/ahsdks.htm

Also, some of the statistics charts are missing years–the Suspension and Expulsion rates chart is missing stats for 1994-95.

http://www.msdsteuben.k12.in.us/ahs/stats/suspen98-.htm

So, on the face of it, it looks like, “Hey, our suspension and expulsion rates went down since we adopted block scheduling!” But there’s actually a gap between 93/94 and 95/96, which isn’t indicated. And it looks like the level of suspensions and expulsions actually leveled out for the years 96-98.

Their chart of SAT scores, similarly, only has two years represented–the 93/94 baseline, and the test scores for 1998, called “block cumulative”, whatever that’s supposed to mean.

http://www.msdsteuben.k12.in.us/ahs/stats/sat99.htm

Which makes me wonder, in a nasty suspicious sort of way–where are the rest of the scores? Maybe they weren’t that good?

The ACT scores, ditto, only the 93-95 baseline, and the stats for 98, labeled “block cumulative”. English and reading went up, as did “sci reasoning”, but math stayed the same

http://www.msdsteuben.k12.in.us/ahs/stats/act99.htm

The Indiana skills test scores were pretty much the same after block scheduling as before. Reading went from 73 to 76, math went from 74 to 78, and language stayed the same.

http://www.msdsteuben.k12.in.us/ahs/stats/istep99.htm

Their graduation and dropout rates are pretty much holding steady.

http://www.msdsteuben.k12.in.us/ahs/stats/gradrop99.htm

The statistics for “Staff Professional Development” just say to me that in 1997 somebody got on the stick and organized a big training program, which was not repeated in 1998.

http://www.msdsteuben.k12.in.us/ahs/stats/prodev99.htm

Attendance was up, but I think that’s mostly in self-defence–those students who care, when they have a choice between cutting class and not cutting, will choose “not cutting”.

http://www.msdsteuben.k12.in.us/ahs/stats/att99.htm

And, these stats were last updated in 1999. I’d sure like to see their numbers for the 99/00 and 00/01 school years.

So, bearing in mind that you can prove anything with statistics that you want to (and I don’t think these particular statistics really prove anything), what I wanna know is, is there some really good and ultimately useful reason for block scheduling? Or is it just the American educational system’s “Flavor of the Decade”, the way “whole language reading” was, a while back?

Is it all just a “numbers game”, and when in 5 or 10 years we discover that the “numbers” don’t really pan out, will we drop block scheduling in favor of some other hot-off-the-presses educational theory?

2

I think it’s a stupid idea too. My son has the normal 8 45-minute periods, and this year he has the first 2 free so he can go to school at a non-ungodly hour. If there was block scheduling, he’d only be able to do that half the time. I live in the suburbs of Hartford, CT but on the “gold coast” (the NYC suburbs where everyone bought Powerball tickets) they have an even more confusing system where every single day of the week is different. They have 6 classes a day, and there are a total of eight different classes, but they randomize the order so it’s not always 1-2-3-4-5-6 or 3-4-5-6-7-8. One day it could be 6-2-4-7-1-3 or some undgodly combination. Go figure.

3

I have a schedule similar to gorewonfla’s description of Greenwich area schools. I go to a private school, and we switched our schedule from 8 42-minute periods a day to 7 classes, with 6 53 or 55-minute periods a day. Every day is assigned a number, so on day I, you skip first period, day II, second, and so on… and if Day I is a Monday, then the next Monday will be day VI, and the 7 day cycle will start over on Wednesday. Needless to say, this can be confusing, though it actually seems more confusing to my teachers than it does to my fellow students and me.
The advantage of longer class time is really only an advantage in classes where labs and such need to be completed in one period, and I suppose if I were taking Chem this year that would be an advantage, since we always rushed through our labs when I took it two years ago. I also get the advantage of skipping one class per day (of course, that also means skipping my free period once per week).
But otherwise, my attention span is strained, and in some classes the teachers simply don’t have enough material they want to cover in one day to fill the period, so I get out of some classes 5 minutes earlier or so (since I’m a senior now, I can be excused from classes). All in all, I’d say it’s… different. The advantages and disadvantages cancel each other out.

4

Back when I was in high school (in Texas). . .

My freshman year we had a six-period day, every day. However, that year the Board of Education decreed that high schools students had to have more classes in order to graduate, so our local school board declared an experiment in our town: my high school went to a block schedule almost entirely as DDG posits, and another one went to a seven-period day. (The other two remained the same, the idea being that the whole district would switch over to what worked best after a year of field trials, and it wasn’t imperative to switch over immediately.)

The results? Mixed, really. The students at my school complained about things like lags between Thursday-Monday classes, long and occasionally booooring class periods, missed days, and so on. However, I always found it convenient to have the lag day to do homework on, and that it staggered the workload a bit, especially later on when I was taking high-level AP science and math courses.

The students at the seven-period a day school complained about homework quite a bit – imagine having to do work every day in each class, and it can get a bit stressful with high-level coursework. Also, the teachers complained that once they got everyone settled, checked the roll, etc., that they often had less than half an hour per day. But they did get to see the students every day, and many of my friends there swore that they’d never be able to remember their lessons if they didn’t get constant reinforcement.

At the end of the year the district found that neither method was better than the other one, objectively, and allowed the schools to pick their own poison. My school stayed with the block schedule (the other stayed with their 7-period days, BTW), which made me happy for the reasons stated above, and also because I was able to take one more class per year for fun & profit. Also, that’s how it’s done in college, and it was nice to get practice. However, my district never made any excuses – they were doing it because the state required more hours, and that was all.

So I guess the point of all this is that either method of packing more classes into those poor high school students has pretty severe drawbacks, and you just have to take your pick.

5

At my HS, we have 4 classes (90mins each)every day for a semester. The next semester we have the other 4 classes. I like this way because you learn a lot more in one class period, and you can get done your homework before school ends sometimes (depending on how hard the class is). Also, if your a senior and you fail a class first semester, and have a schedule where you can fit that class again second semester, you have a chance to pass it then, unlike both the 8 period day and the block schedule.

The down side to this is that if you miss one day you miss 2 classes because of the amount of time spent in each. Also, you may have a math class in the fall and then not have one again until next fall.

I’m glad that we do not have the block scheduling. To me, switching back day to day like that is just stupid. The 4 period day seems so much easier for both teachers and students.

6

In our school, that was called “MOD” scheduling. It was some holdover from the late 60’s or the 70’s–we were the only school that still did it in our area. They were talking about switching it to block scheduling or something my senior year ('94), so it may have switched by now.

The whole point of “MODS” (which is what we called the free period it created) was that if you needed extra help, or to make up a gym class, or to work on a lab, or anything like that, you had that time. Otherwise, you could just go to any classroom that you wanted and use it like a study hall–some teachers liked it silent during that time, and others didn’t mind if you talked to your friends. Depending upon what you felt like, you figured out where to go. You just couldn’t leave the building (it was a “closed campus” at all times–you could not leave until the end of the day.)

This was really helpful to me. My high school is out in the middle of nowhere (and in the 70’s, it was probably really out in the middle of nowhere.) If you would have had to stay after school for those sorts of things, and you didn’t have a car, and you missed your bus, you either had to wait for the “activity” buses or it was a long walk home (I lived three miles away. Many of my friends lived even farther. This was not a “pedestrian-friendly” walk, either.) That’s quite a hassle for a ten-minute question. With MODS, you can ask your question, work on the homework for the rest of the time, take your bus home, and be happy :).

The switching schedules had another bonus. Since your first-period class (at 7:30 a.m.!) was not always “first”, you didn’t have the danger of failing that class because you always slept through it. Freshmen were confused by the schedule at first, but they got the hang of it in a couple of weeks (the first week of school was always “straight schedules” to give them time to adjust to high school first, too.) The rotating schedule did follow a pattern, and most freshmen had a schedule “cheat sheet” posted in their lockers just in case.

They were thinking of switching it to block scheduling because of the bonus to lab classes, showing movies, etc., and because most people didn’t really “need” their MOD every day, so there was a lot of goofing off. The cons suggested were the possible lack of attention span, the difficulty in making up sick days, and teachers who might not really use the time wisely. I’m pretty sure that they decided against it–I think they simply modified the traditional “MOD” schedule instead. I’ll have to ask my sister about it.

7

The county school that I am currently doing my student teaching at is on a block schedule, but it dosen’t sound anything like what you are describing, DDG. There are 4 blocks in a day–year round, 1 90 min block is Math, and one 90 minute block is English. You have either 90 min of History/Social Studies or 90 min of Science each day. I think that you switch off every semester in HS, but in Middle school you switched off every 9 weeks. The fourth block is split in half, with 45 each for Band, PE, Art, etc.

I love, love, love this system. Forty five minutes is not even enough time to get started–by the time you say roll, get people settled in, get interupted by the kid late from the bathroom, take up homework, make mandatory announcements, and get everyone’s books out, there is only half an hour left, and you have to spend the last five minutes of that winding up. For things like science classes, it is almost impossible to set up, do, and clean up a lab in 45 minutes–or at least any sort of interesting lab.

This schedule allows teachers to do several things every day–you can spend the first 10 minutes on a grammer review, then give a quiz on last night’s reading, then spend half an hour talking about that reading, then give the students the last 15 minutes to start reading the next section of the book–a little luxury that makes them much more likely to pick the book back up later. Math teacher have time to give a lesson, then let people get started on their homework so that the teacher can wander around and see who is “getting it” and help the ones who are not.

I myself like the increased emphasis on English and Math. I think that these are the core classes, and that being proficient in English and Math adds to the experience of History and Science. I do not think that quanity of electives should replace quality pf electives, and I fail to see the benefit of covering 8-16 courses per year. Being well rounded is important, yes, and certainly electives are a critical part of that, but depth is important as well.

Lastly, this sort of scheduling is much easier on teachers–performing the same play six times in one day is exhausting. Trying to get to know six classes worth of students personally is well-neigh impossible. Being responsible for three blocks intead of six gives teachers surplus energy to be more personal and more creative.

8

Hi, I’m a math teacher. I teach 6th grade students. I would love to be able to have block sheduling. As it is now, Some days I see students for 45 minutes, and some days I see them for 90 minutes. (Their schedule is heavy on Math and English, due to the fact that they need help in Math and English. I see them for 8 periods in a 5 day week: Some days I see them for one period: 45 minutes; some days I see them for two periods: 90 minutes.

Math is a hard subject to learn for lots of kids. 45 minutes doesn’t begin to do something justice, I can’t get anything substantive done in 45 minutes. 90 minutes is a good amount of time to review old stuff, introduce new stuff, have students actually try to solve problems, and meet with kids to see if they get it.

It just doesn’t work to try and cut up a nice, big meaty lesson into two half lessons. You end up having to limit yourself to doing something very concrete and basic, or else you won’t get to finish before the end of the bell. “Drill and Kill” (or “Plug and Chug”) exercises are easy enough to accomplish, but introducing a new concept? You need a decent chunk of time.

Similarly the same case could be made for the Sciences. The other subjects, I’m not so sure about (but then again I don’t teach them.)

9

I never even heard of block scheduling until I moved to CA my junior hear in HS. And I loved it. In English the discussions would last longer, in math I would have time to do my entire assignment and ask questions, in Spanish we could actually plan a “skit” and practice in the same hour. If I couldn’t finish all my homework in a block, than I would have two nights to finish it, and not just one.
In our school we went to fifth period every day, so it was a normal 45 minutes class. Oh, it was horrible. We never had time to accomplish anything, and it seemed that as soon as we all got there, the bell rang to leave again!
I really had zero sympathy for people who “couldn’t remember” what they had learned the previous week because they had four days to “forget”. What a bunch of bull. If it’s a subject you have a hard time with, study on your own time. How crazy would that be?!
My Sr year, my odd days were pretty full. AP Gov, AP Calc, Student Government, and Honors Chem, contrasted to my even days which included AP English, Economics/Teaching Assistant and a free period. But it balanced itself becaues I could do all my odd day HW on my even days.
The point of this post is that I loved block scheduling, and I strongly encourage all school and parents to embarce it.

10

I have block scheduling(similar to south’s version) and my sister has 8 classes. I laugh at her pain. The only real problem with it is going for two semesters without a subject like math or english and then trying to remember that stuff again.

If you think about it kids spend about 8 minutes getting from one class to another. Doubling the classes adds an extra 32 minutes onto a day or removes it from the classes.

11

As a brand new teacher, I’ve taught both short and long classes, and for both, I prefer the longer blocks. There is more time to get into the meat of the subject, the students have an extra day to work on homework. Both Art and English (my subjects) lend themselves to block schedules - especially Art.

The teachers I’ve heard who aren’t happy with the block schedules are primarily Foreign Language teachers, and I suppose I could blame them. Who wants to be talking constantly for 90 minutes?

12

8 minutes! That must be one big high school. It’s 3 where I live, and it works unless you smoke in the bathroom between periods.

13

I escaped from high school one year before block scheduling set in. I went back to visit on Tuesday, both teachers who I talked to hate it.

When I was in school, there were six periods, fifty-five minutes each. There are now four periods of ninety mintues each day, with each class meeting every other day. The obvious advantage is that students can take more classes. The state legislature recently increased the number of credits required for graduation, so the new system allows students to meet the requirements and still take plenty of electives.

There are many obvious problems though. First of all, class sizes have gotten bigger (of course), and each teacher now teaches six classes instead of five, so they are responsible for many more students. In many classes, especially English, this is a huge problem, because the English teachers need to devote a lot of time to every student’s writing pieces. The immediate result is that a lot of written exams are being swapped out in favor of multiple choice tests.

Also, the teachers had all designed lesson plans around the idea of having 180 days in the year, which they then had to change. Most had to combine two lessons into one and assign twice as much homework during each classroom session. This makes it easier for students to fall behind, and harder for them to catch up.

14

DDG:
**

Ex HS-English teacher here.

I’m chiming in because you asked for opinions from “professional educators” and they are (thus far) in the minority in your Thread.

DDG, I feel your pain. Really. But take a look back at the posts here and you’ll realize that the few people in favor of Block Scheduling are all teachers. What does that suggest?

Teachers are asked to do a difficult job. That’s not a big deal, lots of people are: doctors, lawyers, nuclear technicians, programmers, etc, etc, etc. But, (and this is important) teachers are the only ones allowed to do it poorly.

I don’t mean to get out my soapbox here, but what the hell. Taken as a group, the teachers in the country do a piss-poor job. But, I do believe that most of them want to do better.

I was going to lay out a model lesson plan for you to let you see what a pretty good teacher would like to do with an English Class. But, honestly, I don’t have time to give it to ya right now. Suffice it to say that you would like it. I am (was) a darn good teacher and I put into practice what the best research into Education has discovered.

My lesson plans are all designed to help students access prior knowledge then build a cognitive bridge between that knowledge and the learning objectives for the day. Then we move through those learning objectives in ways that allow students of all different Learning Styles successfuly assimilate those objectives. Then, I am always sure to use authentic assesment tools to verify that the students can demonstrate mastery of those learning objectives.

Trust me… I was good. :slight_smile:

The problem is, simply, that I needed more than 40 minutes to do it. When you don’t have enough time, what do you do? You cut… a piece here, a bit there… and what is left? A lecture. :frowning:
It’s like Manda JO said earlier:

**

So, to come back to my main point. Teachers like (or love) Block scheduling. But, if it’s taken away from them, they will be forced to “make do.” Don’t force your children’s teachers to do this.

If you want your kids to succeed at anything, you do what you can to maximize their chances, right?

Give their teachers the same opportunity.

15

I would have loved block scheduling in high school. It would have permitted teachers to impart their lessons with some real depth. There is nothing quite so superficial as spending 15 minutes every class correcting homework, another 15 minutes barely scratching the surface of new material, and another 15 minutes replete with administrative announcements and other distractions. I did not find this system conducive either to learning or to class participation.

Then again, I was in the first kindergarten cohort to be educated via the Whole Language System, which I maintain is the best thing since sliced bread, at least for a lot of people. YMMV.

MR

16

I missed what grade level Manda’s teaching?

Yeah, SD, I see the point, and I understand that the teachers love it. But what I’m wondering is whether in the long term there’s really any difference between the two approaches. One way or another, kids are going to have the basics of education pounded into their little heads, and which way is better for the kids? I’ve heard students say, some in this thread, “The longer class period gives me time to get into the subject,” but I’ve also heard students say, some in this thread, “The longer class period is just boring”. So what’s the difference? Doesn’t it come down to the teacher, that one teacher can make an 82 minute class period interesting, and the other can’t?

So, if a teacher is good enough to be able to make an 82 minute class period interesting, he ought to be good enough to figure out how to fit the stuff he has to teach into a 45 minute class period. You have a whole semester to do it in, to get the message across. You just split it up differently.

And I’ve been heavily involved as a parent volunteer with my kids since The Cat started kindergarten, and so I’ve spent a certain amount of time at the schools, watching the teachers teach, and I have to say that I have yet to meet a teacher who didn’t briskly deal with the whole “roll call, late bathroom, homework, announcements” administrative shtick in about 4 minutes flat. I’d say that if it takes a teacher 30 minutes for all of this, then he’s spending too much time on it. Delegate it, or ignore it–that seems to be how the teachers hereabouts deal with it.

And anyway, my main objection to block scheduling is the pressure it puts on kids to show up for school, to not miss a day. If Bonzo’s school had been the regular kind, I would certainly have kept him home for the first day at least, he was that sick.

17

My school, like the vast majority of public schools on Long Island, has 9 periods forty minute periods a day with a four minute break to get between classes. My school day started at 9 and ended at 3:30. As a result of the very late starting, all clubs started before school. Therefore school started aat 7:45. Having single periods was such a time killer. Not only do the classes not start immediately, which most did not complain about, but the homework load was immense. My junior year in High School my schedule was AP Chem, AP Chem, Lunch, Pre-Calc, AP Composition, AP Computer Science, AP American, Spanish IV, and Latin II. Considering I played sports also I had no free time. If I had block scheduling my homework would have been more spread apart. Some of my friends didd not even take a free period, so they have 9 classes that give homework every day. So if on average each class give 15-45 minutes of homework, it is 4 and half hours of homework nightly.

18

D[sup]2[/sup]G:

Good question. The answer (according to the most recent research) is Block Scheduling. Now, before everyone gets themselves tied up in knots clamoring for proof, let me back off for a minute. Education is not Physics - it’s a lot more like social research: things take a long time to ferment before we know if they work or not. (Hell, the whole public school system is nothing more than an experiment in progress.)

But, the most recent research suggests that students spend more time at the top of Bloom’s Taxonomy during the meaty section of a longer class than they do in a shorter class period.

And, as you said yourself,

**

This goes back to what I said earlier: Teachers are (for some reason I can’t fathom) the only professionals in this country routinely allowed to do their jobs poorly. What this means is that if you don’t give them every opportunity to do the job well, they (as a group) will slip back into the mire.

Of course some teachers will always shine. But, to do the best job they can, they (as a group) need every edge we can give them. If they want hour-long periods, PC’s on every desk, etc, etc, etc… I say we give it to 'em.

You went on to say:
**

**

Pardon me, but you’re wrong. This is like saying that if you’re a good enough cook to make a delicious 4-egg omelette, than you should be able to make 2 delicious 2-egg omelettes. That doesn’t hold true, because sometimes you just don’t have enough egg.

Your point about the pressure Block Scheduling puts on kids is accurate. But, I’ve always maintained that school’s main focus should be on the institutions of self-reliance and responsibilty. If you miss school, there should be consequences. Not as a punishment - especially not for younger kids - but as an educational tool. In the “real world,” missing an appointement (at a job, at the Doctor or at your kid’s soccer game) has consequences. So, absence should have consequences in school as well.

19

I went to a school with block scheduling. We took six classes. On Mondays we would go to our 1st, 3rd and 5th classes for an hour and fifty minutes each. On Tuesdays we would go to periods 2, 4 and 6. On Fridays, we would go to all of our classes for forty-five minutes and school would let out an hour early.

I found the block scheduling to be vastly superior to the traditional schedule we used in Junior High.

First off, classes would really reach a new depth. In short classes, administrative stuff really does take up a lot of time. You figure you have five minutes to settle kids down and make annoucments. ten to collect and go over homework, and at least five minutes at the end of class to make new assignments. There is barely any time left over for teaching! Beyond that, things like discussions, projects and field trips are right out. And, in short classes, students are never really with you. They are busy thinking about their next class. They have no encouragement to develop their attention span.

Block schedules allowed us to do some awesome things. In government class, we got into long and deep political discussions and had time for everyone to participate, listen to others, and refine their opinions over the span of the class. In drama, we put on children’s plays, and bussed kids from local elementry schools in to perform for them. In science classes, we had time to lecture and labwork in the same period. In English class, we learned how to write good sustained in-class essays, which is probably one of the most important things to know in college. In all classes we were able to make short field trips, have test reviews before taking tests and watch educational videos without wasting a whole day.

There were lots of other, minor benefits. The mid-class breaks were the perfect time to talk to teachers, go to the office or grab a snack. We only had to carry around half the books, a big deal in the day of lockerless schools. Our school had really large class sizes, and short classes would not give enough time for any sort of individual attention between the students and teachers. With block schedule, teachers could at least get some personal interaction in, and could focus on the group of kids long enough to build some sort intimacy despite the large classes. Homework and test preparation was easier to do because you had more time between classes to do it. If you had an activity one night, for example, you could do your homework for all your classes on another night and still not fall behind. And, if you missed a class, you only have to worry about catching up for three classes, not all of them. You also have the chance to find out what your homework is and still get it in on time.

Yes, it is harder for kids. Classes actually mean something, and you can’t wontonly skip them. Kids have to learn to budget their time. They have to create their own schedules for homework and the such, instead of being babied with nightly assignments. They have to seek out extra help on their own and see teachers after class and on breaks. They have to lean to use daily planners and assignment books. They even have to learn how to retain information for more than twelve hours! They have to pay attention to something for more than five seconds, an immense trial for kids reared on MTV. But, if your high school aged kid can’t pay attention to something for a couple hours, he or she has bigger problems. At some point, people have to learn to pay attention to something longer than a soundbyte. If a kids can’t stomach a two hour class, imagine that kid’s agony when confronted with an eight hour workday!

Duck Duck Goose, I understand your concerns about missed classes. But, there are advantages, too. If you miss a day, you only have to deal with making up the learning and work for half of your classes, instead of getting behind in all of your classes and trying to catch up on (and do homework for) eight subjects at once. If the kid misses an even number of class, it is all even anyway (think about, if each whole short period and half long period are “chunks” of class, then a kid that misses for days of class is going to miss four “chunks” of any given class no matter how you look at it) And, no matter how you slice it up, the kid is going to have to seek help outside of class for missed days. Even with traditional schedules, the teacher is not going to have time in a forty-five minute class to reteach yesterday’s lesson to someone. At least with the block schedule your kid is more likely to seek the help that he or she needs to make things up, instead of just going to class and letting it slide because the stakes are so low.

I for one,
don’t think that putting pressure on kids to show up to school is a bad thing, cosidering that schools have a lot more trouble keeping kids in than out. Your kid had it a lot harder, because it was the first day of school. I will admit that for kids that get sick the first day of school, block scheduling is hard. But, for your ordinary run-of-the-mill skipped day, block scheduleing does not present an insurmountable problem.

Anyway, I think that block schedules present many advantages over traditional schedules, and present a fuller, rich, and more complete education than a traditional schedule, as well as a better preperation for the future of college and employment.

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Yeah, our school used to do the regular school thing, but when I was a freshman in high school, they changed to block scheduling. Soon I’ll be going into my senior year.

We all thought we’d hate it, too, Duck Duck, but as it turns out, it’s great. The idea of having to go through eight classes in one day is simply horrible. And we may not see our teachers too often, but you really get used to it, and it’s worked out great, at least for me. Plus only having three classes worth of homework is very nice. My bro is in middle school and they sort of do a type of block scheduling on certain days to get the students used to what happens in the high school- they really like it too, apparently.

I agree with even, once you’ve had the block scheduling, the idea of only teaching in 45 minute blocks is really odd. Now I can’t imagine how we’d get anything done. The day is a lot more relaxing, too. Less jumping up and down and having to run to classes. Now it just feels nicer somehow.

Yes, it is boring. This year in math was hell, but I never really thought “This would be so much better if we were on the other scheduling.” The good part is, you get the classes you hate only half as much. After awhile, you stop thinking that an hour and a half is so much time. I think kids are a lot more adaptable than one might think. There’s been very little difficulty with it so far. And if they do this type of thing in college, then great, because I can’t imagine ever not doing it. :slight_smile: