Opinion: The Afternoon is the best time for SRT
September 23, 2019
Pencils scratching, keyboards tapping, and pens being clicked. These are the noises of the perfect SRT classroom. However in the high school, these noises are drowned out by voices, video games, and YouTube videos. Ever since SRT was switched to the morning, the pencils have become quieter and the voices have become much louder. This is because students are having trouble finding homework to do. The afternoon is much better than the morning for achieving the true purpose of SRT.
Every year, most teachers tell their class that they should be working and there shouldn’t be a lot of phones out. But what if there isn’t any work to do? Before SRT, we only have one class which is 49 minutes long, and SRT is 59 minutes. There is no way that homework for that one class will take up all of SRT. Usually the homework I get from one class takes about 15 minutes, unless it is an essay. SRT is meant to be used for work, but there isn’t enough work to be done to fill up the 59 minutes, unless they do their homework from the night before.
If a student decides to do their homework from the night before in SRT, 59 minutes will probably not be enough time to finish the homework for their 2-6 hour classes. Many students will decide not to do their homework the night before its due because they will have time in SRT. While this may seem like a good idea, homework can take a lot more time than somebody may expect. Also, being in an environment where there are lots of people to talk to will make homework take even longer than usual, because the student will procrastinate. While a person may ‘have time’ to do work in SRT, it is very likely that they won’t get it done in time and lose points on it.
Not only does having SRT in the morning take away from school work, it takes away from appointments. A student will miss a lot less class if they are absent from SRT rather than the core classes. SRT would be the perfect time for a student to go to the doctor or dentist, because they wouldn’t have to miss lessons, tests, or classwork. But because most offices, like Jeffery S. Rimarcik’s, don’t open until 9:00 or after, students would miss a core class, because SRT begins at 8:40. It is almost impossible to drive to the dentist, finish your appointment, and make it back to school in time for 2nd hour.
Luckily, in a class meeting, principal Mark Suchowski said that they are just trying morning SRT and it is a possibility that next year or sometime this year, SRT it will be switched back to the afternoon.
