By Faith Anton
The bell rings and the mad rush of students spill into the hallways, jousting for position to make it to their next class in time. The term “every second counts” takes a new meaning when you’re expected to make it to your next class within the measly four minutes allotted for passing time.
In addition to making it to their next class, students also need time to make it to the bathroom, get a drink, fill up water bottles, and stop at their lockers to drop things off and pick things up. Some may also need to make the trek to to the other side of the building and up and down the stairs.
While these factors seem trivial, they do take time and make it more difficult to arrive at a class in a timely and organized fashion. Many students arrive to class late and are counted tardy because they have not had enough time to get other tasks completed. This is much to the displeasure of most of the teaching staff who often (and rightfully so) fix the tardy student with a disappointed stare. Not only does the teacher get interrupted, but the other students in the classroom get their learning disrupted.
The simple and easy fix to this problem is to add a minute or two passing period. The majority of our student body would advocate for this extension, even if it was by one minute. It would barely even cause minor intrusion on schooling time.
Those not in support of this change may say that adding time to a passing period will take away from class time. But is this really true? Students are constantly asking to leave a classroom to go to the bathroom or get a drink because they have not had time during passing period so, in essence, they are already incorporating that addition passing time. Also, there is rarely a class that goes right up to the bell so taking a minute from class would make little difference.
By adding even one minute to our passing time, we could kill two birds with one stone by allowing students time to get things done and arrive at the classroom on time. This change would benefit all, staff and students alike.
