Commentary Article

The schedule at Bowie High School had been an issue that everyone has been talking about this past year. This summer the faculty was discussing about changing the schedule to every Monday and Wednesday a "A" day and every Tuesday and Thursday a "B" day with Friday alternating, there was also a consideration of having fit be everyday. Although I disagree with the "A" and "B" day schedule I completely agree with having fit everyday

With the school year starting in September the school had originally planned for Monday and Wednesday to be "A" days and Tuesday and Thursday being "B" days while Fridays would be alternating between "A" and "B" days. All summer everyone had been talking about the schedule and if the school was actually going to go through with it.

Most students including myself disagreed with this schedule, especially with the times of the start, finish and passing periods of the school changing. This would just be too confusing. It would be to difficult to remember what Friday would be and "B" days would fall way behind.

With school getting out so late it is hard to try and get all your homework and other things done at a reasonable time, so you can eat and go to bed. Students will get home, depending on where you live, from 4:20 to possibly 5:30 or later. Getting home any later than about 5:20 can be a hung hassle. Students only get 3 hours to finish their homework and eat there dinner, so they can go to bed at a good time. Sometimes you will have longer than 3 hours of homework not including dinner and distractions.

With the new schedule talk there were also rumors that fit would be everyday, this is what some students got excited about. With having 4 classes a day and seeing them every other day the teachers load you up with homework. Being able to have free time to work on homework and get help on subjects you don't understand would be very nice to have everyday.

Bowie tries to be a student voice school and if they want the students to be apart of the decisions that are going on they need to let us have a voice about them. There was no one that asked the students what they want there schedule to be. The school does a good job of letting the students choose, but I feel they could do better with letting us have a voice in other subjects.

There are always people who won't take advantage of the opportunity to have fit everyday, but that is their loss. Students who don't get a lot of homework may think it is stupid to have fit everyday day because they would have nothing to do, but there are many fit sessions where you don't have to just do homework. Most of the students will take advantage of this opportunity to be able to do there homework.

I realize some teachers may not want fit everyday because it takes time out of their class time, but there is a solution to this. Have fit be three or four times a week and if the students seem to be benefiting from this the school can change to more days a week and if they don't you can change it back. If students do end up benefiting from fit more times a week it would help the teachers in the long run because they can help those who need help the most and students would be able to focus on the subjects they are struggling the most in.

The school did change the schedule back to alternating "A" and "B" days for the benefit of the students and teachers, but they did not allow fit everyday this year. In the future with criteria becoming harder and harder I think the school should consider giving the students fit everyday or at least three days a week.