Do students want more classwork and stress? Do they want less class time for asking questions? Adding a seventh period onto students’ schedules would only bring more chaos into the average student’s life. However, some students say that they want seven periods. Sophomore Sophie Roggermeier said, “[Students] could have an opportunity to take more AP classes, such as AP electives. This makes it easier for students to take an AP elective on top of doing four years of fine arts and foreign language.” Senior Jaxon Price said, “Having a seven-period schedule would be better because seniors would not have to take as many difficult classes in their final year. They would be able to take more advanced classes over all four years at McIntosh, not just senior year.”

The cons of switching to a seven-period day, however, outweigh the pros. First, being a high school student is already hectic enough, students do not need another period of homework, quizzes and tests, and on top of all this, students can’t afford to lose class time. Math teacher Mr. Arthur Walton said, “[The six period schedule] allows for more instruction time with teachers, which has been proven to improve work output in students.” Currently, students have an hour of class time, but with a new period, students would lose approximately  ten valuable minutes of class. That means students would lose ten minutes in which students could ask for clarity on the lessons, but even more detrimental, students would lose about ten minutes off of time for taking tests. It is already stressful enough to take tests, imagine losing ten minutes to complete the test. Math teacher Greg Mason said, “The six period schedule includes more time for success. More classes does not equate to more success.”

Next, most students do not need the additional period. Junior Angel Angelov said, “Six periods are better because no one needs an additional, useless class.” Students already have access to a seventh period schedule by taking zero period. Furthermore, if they were forced to choose a seventh period, some students would choose classes that are less academically rigorous. Choosing this sort of class could look give colleges a bad impression of students when they see their transcripts. Mr. Mason said, “College students do not even have seven classes per semester.” If high school is supposed to prepare students for college, high schools should not offer scheduling that is not even moderately similar to college schedules.

Finally, students have already accomplished so much success with the six period schedule. Over the years, McIntosh has won numerous awards, so changing what the school has been doing would be counterproductive. Mr. Mason said, “McIntosh has been so successful, especially this past semester, so I do not see any reason to make a change.” The school has been fine as it is. Therefore, no scheduling change is necessary.