Let's Keep Parts of Spring Schedule in the Fall

By Nick Rose

This spring, it seems like students have been forced to adapt to a calendar change almost every two weeks, demonstrating the difficulty involved in establishing an effective schedule. At its best, a schedule is able to maximize educational and extracurricular opportunities, while giving students ample time to work on homework and socialize with friends. At its worst, it can place enormous amounts of stress on students during the school day and prevent any decompression afterwards.

Overall, I believe that our administration eventually developed a successful schedule for this spring, and it should largely be preserved for next year. In particular, early-morning and evening classes should continue to be absent; the athletics and arts should consistently be placed in afternoon time slots; and the lunch block should remain at its current length.

It is difficult to find voices supporting evening classes among both the students and faculty. Overall concentration slowly wanes as the school day continues, and the addition of an evening class greatly extends the time that both groups need to focus. While a block at 6:00 or 8:00 p.m. may free up time earlier during the day for homework, I personally find it much more difficult to squeeze in work between classes compared to when I am working at night in my room.

The removal of 8:00 a.m. classes seems to have similar effects on concentration and the ability to do homework, as the early time leads to groggy students struggling to participate in Harkness. Furthermore, as I will be awake until the same time doing homework regardless, the absence of an early class allows me an extra hour of sleep every night. While the homework level has certainly risen this term, I have at least found my sleep schedule to be healthier without an early class.

There also seems to be a general consensus on campus that having sports and athletics in the middle of the day, especially in winter term, is a recipe for stress. The placement of practices right after lunch greatly inhibits the amount that athletes are able to eat and shortens the length of time that can actually be used for practice. Students are also rarely able to shower before returning to class afterwards and struggle to concentrate in these next few blocks. A consistent time for athletic practice right after the conclusion of the day’s classes can serve as an effective method of decompression, especially if it does not interrupt the concentration needed for Harkness.

Another important aspect of the daily calendar previously under scrutiny is the lunch break. Earlier in the term, the amount of time allocated for lunch was only about thirty minutes and sometimes even split between two blocks. With this style, lunch became an incredibly stressful time of the day as students attempted to wolf down their food and hurry off to their next class. As soon as lunch was placed into a more consistent time block and lengthed, it turned from one of the most stressful times of the day into the most relaxing, in which students are now able to socialize and experience a welcome break before moving on to afternoon classes. This change should definitely be preserved for next year.

This term, Exeter also experienced having no class every other Wednesday for the very first time. This was certainly a beneficial aspect to reducing collective stress; however, if this practice is continued in any form next year, it could be more effective to move these days to Friday. Teachers currently assign greater amounts of homework over Wednesday because students have more time to work, and so the day is mostly spent completing assignments. If these types of breaks are instead moved to connect with the weekend, students could use this time to truly relax and make the most of their time off.

In order for this system to be successful, however, teachers would have to continue assigning a normal length homework over the weekend. Athletics could benefit from this change as well, for instead of being squeezed into Wednesday afternoons, contests could take place Friday afternoon and evening. The weekend would then serve as a more centered environment for competitions, instead of a stressful midweek game.

While our current spring schedule certainly involves a quick pace and condensed classes during the day, it strikes an important balance between productivity and decompression. The divide earlier in the day allows students to mentally flip a switch for the afternoon and unwind a bit, while at the same time remaining more focused for a shorter overall period of time. A similar weekly calendar for the next few terms could greatly improve both academic performance and stress levels, while also allowing time for students to pursue extracurricular activities with ease.