Free time benefits students and teachers; scheduling mistake needs to be fixed

“It’s not too late to fix your mistake,” is a slogan Anne Arundel County Public Schools has preached to its students.

AACPS has always given students the chance to retake exams we have done poorly on, and now the students of AACPS are hoping school officials make use of a similar opportunity.

When the new schedule for high schools across county public schools was released, students, parents and teachers were outraged. For years, AACPS high schools have had structured free time. It’s typically an hour-long block of time where we had the opportunity to attend clubs, get help from teachers, eat lunch and decompress before attending the rest of our classes.

With the release of the new schedule this is set to change. At Annapolis High School this is referred to as “Panther Hour,” at South River it’s “Nest” and at Broadneck it’s called “Bruin Block.” Whatever you call it, wherever you go to school, it is the part of the day most students look forward to.

You can use your structured free time to do homework because you work after school or because you’re playing a sport. Keeping up with homework is difficult. Maybe you’re just trying to get your work out of the way so you can relax when you get home.

Structured free time has been used by students across the county as an opportunity for all of the above. By taking away our structured free time, we’ve been cast aside, and told to figure it out on our own.

Student athletes who are struggling academically are sent to Academic Study Hall, a space set aside during structured free time to get tutoring and help bring their grades up. An athlete deemed academically ineligible has roughly a month to bring up their grades before they are kicked off the team.

This dedicated space during structured free time provides crucial tutoring to help them keep their grades up. But now, without this support, how can these athletes get help maintaining their academic performance and stay on their teams?

Structured free time was also used as a time for students to join and attend clubs. As a senior who has begun the college application process, I know just how important extracurriculars are.

How are we meant to be competitive applicants if we are restricted to three 30-minute blocks set aside for clubs each week? What will we do if two or more clubs we want to join meet at the same time? Many clubs (specifically those competitive in nature or volunteer-based) meet more than once a week to prepare for competitions or organize student initiatives.

In the days of structured free time students had the freedom to accommodate their schedules using the 10 slots open each week for clubs and academic help. With the new schedule, club and academic catch-up slots are down to just three a week.

The accessibility issues caused by shifting club meetings to after school are deeply troubling. Not all students and families have the resources to accommodate after-school activities, especially considering the overburdened and unreliable bus system in our county.

Students who work to support their families would be excluded from school community engagement, and those involved in after-school activities like sports and drama clubs would be forced into impossible choices between activities.

A school is not just the students. Its teachers are just as important. The truth of the matter is teachers need these blocks as much as students do.

During structured free time teachers are able to focus on specific students who need a little extra help, rather than using valuable class time re-teaching concepts to a class full of children, most of whom already understand it.

Many teachers also use structured free time to do lesson planning. In an era where teacher shortages are no longer breaking news, teachers have been asked to cover classes during their planning periods. Unless teachers are expected to do all their lesson planning outside of contract hours, structured free time is the only time they can do it.

Structured free time has been a time for students to get academic help, complete work, attend clubs and take a much needed break to socialize. It has given teachers a time to plan lessons and cover classes that sit vacant due to an ongoing teacher and substitute shortage, as well as re-engage with the small groups of students who need it.

By taking this time away from students and teachers, the school day has become less centered on turning out well-rounded human beings, and more focused on the mass manufacturing of factoid-regurgitators.

AACPS must realize that cutting structured free time is detrimental to students and teachers. Our plea for change is growing stronger by the minute, with more than 4,000 signatures on an online petition in under 48 hours. We need your support to amplify our voices and demand that the school system rectifies this mistake.

Please stand with us and sign the petition to save our structured free time. It can be found at https://chng.it/7DwYCM5zPp.

We cannot afford to let this invaluable resource slip away. AACPS has an opportunity for a redo, and we implore them to use it wisely. Let’s protect the future of our education and our community.