Starting with the 2024-2025 school year, Arrowhead is switching to a block schedule with four periods every day, with classes alternating every other day. Before this fall, Arrowhead High School used a 10-period 40-minute schedule. This change affected every student, but other schools in the area made this switch successfully many years ago.
According to Cross River Therapy, the average 16-year-old has an attention span of 32 to 48 minutes.
“Honestly, my attention span has been good this year, but sometimes I zone out when a teacher talks all the time because it gets boring.” Emily Adams, a sophomore at Arrowhead, said.
A survey done by Indiana University’s High School Survey of Student Engagement found that two out of students are bored in school every day, and 17% said that they are bored in every class.
“My attention span is slowly decreasing,” Lydia Peterson, a sophomore at Arrowhead, said.
Students commented that they feel rushed to their next class and that they don’t get the mental break they need between classes. According to mhscattalk.com, the website said, “Breaks can also increase your ability to retain information. Not only will it encourage students to be more focused but it is another time for students to be able to complete other school-related tasks.”
“Not being able to get breaks in between classes is the most challenging part after sitting for 1 hour and 20 minutes,” Peterson said.
The schedule change has its pros and cons, but many students seem to be enjoying this year’s schedule even with the longer classes.
“I like this year’s schedule more because even though the classes are longer there are fewer of them in a day and that gives you more time to finish the homework. I also really like the resource periods because that is another time for you to finish any homework you haven’t completed yet,” Adams said.
“I prefer this year’s schedule,” Peterson said.
With the first quarter coming to an end in three weeks, students are bustling to get work done and hoping that their classes are worth the 85 minutes.
