We as a society love to blame people for the misfortunes in our lives, unaware that most of the time, such incidents we view as diabolical are completely out of the hands of those we blame.
Ever since I was a freshman here at North Forsyth, I have adored the bell schedule our school had. Seven period days on Monday, Tuesday and Friday, and block periods on Wednesday and Thursday. I love this system. It provides opportunities for those who need to make up work or who need help in certain subjects.
All of that is changing come next year.
The Department of Education in Georgia originally required an average of 250 minutes of instructional time per week, and have now raised it so schools are required to have 350 minutes per week. Because of this change done by the state, the school had to accommodate and rearrange their bell schedule. Assistant principal Jennifer Daniel provided insight for how the process worked for choosing a schedule to best benefit the students of North Forsyth. She said they tried to consider the students and their organizations; however, the Department of Education for Georgia does not count Raider Times as educational time because “everything else is choice, and there’s no actual curriculum” regarding those times.
Daniel said she knew people were upset about the change, and her own children are seniors who will utilize study halls to get help when needed. She stated she believes the DOE does not “totally understand how we use that time for remediation and, you know, retakes and things like that.” It is great to hear our staff here at North understand the students’ concerns.
The main concern is surrounding North’s numerous clubs. Most of these clubs utilized Raider Times and Wellnesses to have meetings, and with the amount of clubs we have, I am concerned for how we are all going to function without those slotted timeframes. While Wellnesses continue to be conducted, if a person is in four different clubs like I am, they will have to decide which meetings or which events to miss in favor of others, thus having to sacrifice one thing for another.
The only benefit of this schedule I can think of is more time for tests and perhaps time at the end of each period to at least begin make-up work. So, is the schedule terrible? Is it terrific? The answer lies in the upcoming school year.
