With Freedom Comes Responsibility

Even with a wealth of on-campus activities, a ten-mile radius to explore and a thousand other students with whom to interact, people at Exeter often complain about limited freedoms. These complaints generally come from underclassmen (preps and lowers), and this is somewhat understandable. Restricted to 8 oclock check in, ‘study hours’ until 10 p.m. and a lights-out cutoff at 11, I can certainly sympathize with those who wish for more freedoms during their first years at the Academy.However, when students reach their upper years, they are suddenly afforded a great deal more freedom. Check in moves to 9 o'clock, study hours no longer apply and bedtime is a completely self-determined rule. Certainly it is refreshing to have a little more room in your schedule, but is this too much freedom all at once?Upper year is said to be the hardest at the Academy, and it can be especially hard to transition into it during fall term. It would seem that these freedoms should help incoming uppers get accustomed to their new workload, but I would argue that it does just the opposite.For underclassmen, it is much harder to procrastinate when they have two hours in the evenings specifically for the purpose of doing work and an enforced bedtime. It is important to manage one’s time carefully in order to complete all work and other chores by the time the lights must be turned off.However, this pressure does not exist for upperclassmen. With the promise of unlimited time past 11 o'clock to stay up and work, and no need to be in the dorm until nine, it can be easy to postpone work until late at night and subsequently lose several hours of sleep.In fact I think that most of the complaints about sleep deprivation at Exeter stem from poor time management rather than an overwhelming workload. Although homework can be strenuous, the amount that the average student receives each night should still allow for at least eight hours of sleep, given that the student works efficiently with minimal procrastination. I believe that the level of procrastination is due to the fact that students are granted freedoms at a time when they are also adjusting to a large increase in coursework. It can be quite hard to adjust to the combination of these two changes.This adjustment can only be more difficult for new uppers, who begin their time at Exeter in the hardest year of their high school careers. Getting used to Exeter as a prep can be hard enough, and I shudder to think how difficult that process would be while also coping with an upperclassmen’s share of work.My argument is certainly not that upperclassmen should be denied the freedoms of later check-in and no bedtime—simply that these freedoms should be introduced more gradually. One suggestion I have heard is to remove study hours for lowers in their spring term, or to push their check-in time to 8:30. This way, students would learn how to manage their time better while their workload is still comparatively light, and they wouldn't have to adjust so quickly when upper year rolls around. Of course this would have little effect on new uppers, but it would prepare the vast majority of students—who enter the Academy as preps or lowers—much better for the challenges of upper year.