The clock ticks as the minute hand hits the number twenty-three. “Alright class pack up,” announced Mr. Hoering to his eighth grade class. The class piles their bulky books atop their binders and line up. The passing period bell rings and the class walks out, but there is one problem. Some only have four minutes to urinate, grab their hefty books, and walk to the class which is a huge problem that many students are faced with at Blackhawk Middle School.
To start off with the issue of the four minute bell, students do anything in the last minute of class, like in the example above the students are told to pack up 2 entire minutes before we even leave class, and I believe that one minute would be better spent in the hands of the students. In the words of Jason Li “If students didn’t have to interrupt a class to use the restroom or get water, it would create a better learning environment for the rest of the students,” thus making the class time removed more efficient and more productive overall.
Secondly, if you have to move from one end of the building, need a restroom break, and need books from your locker it is a hassle to get to class. There is stress that is built up when you’re in a hassle, and that will make kids less efficient in class. For example when you are stressed during a test you make more errors and when you are stressed when talking to someone you stumble more. This stress builds up and worsens the more it happens and it doesn’t help when teachers tell their students they aren’t allowed to go to the restroom in class. According to Douglas Carlson on forsterEDU, ” twenty-five percent of students say that stress lowered their grades or ability to finish a course,” which means this is actually affecting their grades too.
Last, but certainly not least, when students go from elementary school to middle school they lose their recess and class are longer, which means the students don’t have time to release stress and energy during the school day. This means that sixth graders will be too energized and stressed during many classes to pay attention, and this extra minute will help them at least lose a little bit of their stress. Also without recess their general happiness will be decreased and this never helps in any situation, especially in school where you must work all day.
To conclude why the passing period time should be increased by one minute we don’t do any work at all in the last minutes of class, students will be less stressed if they have more time between classes, it takes more than four minutes to finish everything you need to do between classes, stress builds up and makes students have more errors, and middle school students don’t get recess to calm themselves down. Adding minutes to the passing period will make the students happier and generally make the school day more productive. Maybe if this gets changed Mr. Hoering won’t have to shriek at his late students any longer.