7 periods a recipe for failure

To the editor:

I am not typically one to write a letter to the editor, but I feel compelled to do so based on my experiences with the seven-period schedule that the Mat-Su Borough School District has foisted upon its students and staff. This newly implement policy is bad for education, and the school board is refusing to give credit to the alarm teachers are sounding.

Your teachers are your first responders in education. We see the impact of policy change immediately and react, adapt and report back on what we see. We see students struggling to stay afloat in this current schedule and we are concerned about what their futures hold. Personally, I am worried that the public and students who will bear the brunt of the seven-period day will not likely know or understand its consequences until it is too late.

The seven-period day looks good on paper; it looks efficient, like the model of customer service. It appears to provide options for our students, when in reality all it does is bring down the quality of what we offer. The professed benefits to this schedule are that it offers high-achieving students more opportunities to take electives and AP classes to augment their learning, and it allows struggling learners more opportunities to make up failed classes.

A win-win, right? The problem is that the reality does not match the theory. Reality is that our high-achieving students are taking more classes and facing burnout, and our struggling learners are now facing report cards with just one more F to make up for in the summer. Instead of helping them, the seven-period day is heaping more expectations onto them.

Today’s student is well-rounded. These students are involved in scouting, 4-H, churches, sports, drama, outdoor recreation and a myriad of other activities. In addition to these responsibilities, our typical high school students have daily homework from each of their classes. I have personally seen the effect of an added class onto that workload. I have students who are opting out of the honors track in favor of classes they have a better shot at keeping up with. We are already seeing students choose the easy way and effectively dumb-down their education in favor of getting at least one good night’s rest a week.

In classrooms, teachers find themselves with less time to get to know their students as the frantic pace of the day takes hold. There is a constant sense of “next!” as we push through curriculum forced by a schedule that values a substandard product over people.

As an English teacher, the district asks me to assign my students one formal essay per quarter in addition to daily assignments. As an honors teacher, I assign more. It takes me anywhere from five to 10 minutes to grade one essay, depending on the level at which it was written and the level at which I am scrutinizing. With this estimate it takes me anywhere from eight to 12 hours to grade one set of essays. This is just the time it takes to grade essays, not what it takes to grade assignments and exams, nor the time it takes to conference with parents and students, nor the time it takes to plan six different lessons a day. The seven-period schedule hurts our students and teachers in the place they can least afford to be injured — time.

I am not a cashier providing customer service; I am an educator providing intellectual opportunities. Our students are not products; they are people. Our parents are not customers; they are our neighbors. By implying the stakeholders are anything less, we are insulting the community that supports us, and the seven-period schedule is the very manifestation of that implication.

Stephanie Haase

Wasilla