What Are The Pros And Cons Of No More Block Schedule

No More Block Schedules

Although many more schools are now switching to the block schedule in hope of improving education nationally, there are many reasons why we should keep the traditional schedule to benefit students. The block schedule which is now being used has more disadvantages than people may think. Since the class times are extended it makes paying full attention extremely hard on students letting them become easily distracted. Also, the amount of work covered in one day is much more than in the traditional schedule, making it hard for students to keep up. This faster pace makes learning and remembering all the information difficult for students, especially when circumstances such as missing a day of school come into play. Block

The 90-minute periods can also be very intimidating causing students to be less likely to give their full attention the whole time. In the article “Block Scheduling: A Solution or a Problem?” by Sharon Cromwell she explains how the increase in time dedicated to each class has the potential to do more harm than good. She engages with the problem that “if active learning doesn't take place during, for example, a 90-minute class period, students may have trouble paying attention for the entire class” (Cromwell 1). Using this example, of having a 90-minute lecture rather than 90 minutes filled with learning could be problematic. There is a significant increase in the amount of time spent in the classroom making it easy for students to lose focus and not retain information. Also, with such long class periods, students often get bored,distracted, and no longer feel like learning any more information. There is only so much time that a student or anyone can stay focused on one topic in the same environment. Another problem with having 90-minute classes is that the students feel no sense of urgency and can be easily distracted by friends and other factors since they don’t feel the need to get all their work done quickly. The increase in time can be deceiving for students when taking tests, working on projects, or just

In the article “The Pros and Cons of Block Schedules” by Malissa Kelly she explains how “If a student misses a day under the block schedule, he is actually missing the equivalent of nearly two days compared to the traditional 50-minute-class schedule” (Kelly 1). This means that if a student misses a week of school with the block schedule for whatever reason, they are missing 2 full weeks of school with the traditional schedule. This is such a problem it has the possibility of making students fail their classes, or fall so far behind they are unable to get a grade that they deserve. The topics they go over in class will never be able to be learned fully if they miss them because they no longer have direct teachings from the educator. This causes them to either seek help from a fellow peer who most likely won't be able to teach it as well, or to learn it themselves through other means such as videos. This is a major problem when it comes to projects as well because they miss the time given in class to complete them, when they have all the available resources required to complete the project. Also, if the projects happen to be group projects, it can affect other students who are left with completing the work of multiple people single-handedly which can result in bad grades that they can't control. Furthermore, students can miss more social interaction and can fall