Students Share Opinions on Scheduling for the 2021-2022 Academic Year

With the end of the remote school year nearing, The Spectator conducted a survey with current freshmen, sophomores, and juniors on their opinions on preferred school scheduling for the 2021-2022 school year. Out of the 190 responses, 64.2 percent of students preferred the current modified schedule for remote learning—10 periods over the span of two days with five periods each day—while 34.2 percent of students preferred the traditional schedule used in-person before the pandemic—10 periods every day. The remaining 1.6 percent did not have a preference or suggested a new scheduling format.

Within these responses, 76 were freshmen, 53 were sophomores, and 61 were juniors. Preference for the modified remote learning schedule decreased as grade level increased; 72.3 percent of freshmen and 71 percent of sophomores preferred the schedule in contrast with the 55 percent of juniors. Similarly, preference for the traditional daily 10 period schedule increased as grade level increased; 45 percent of juniors preferred it while only 21.6 percent and 28 percent of freshmen and sophomores preferred it, respectively.

To better understand the opinions behind schedule preferences, the News Department conducted interviews with students. Here is what they said:

“The five-period schedule is pretty neat and it allows for students who have extra work to have more time to complete it. I never experienced what it was like to have the 10-period schedule but I believe that it would be more stressful since students would have to get their homework done the next day. There are more classes but less time in each which I think would make it harder to learn things. ” —Kayla Lin, freshman

“Depending on remote or in-person schooling, I would prefer different schedules. If school is in-person, I would prefer the original 10-period schedule because I would be able to learn more in one day, and I also feel more motivated with the 10-period schedule. In some of my classes, the class has been rushed due to the five-period schedule. If we are remaining in the remote school environment, I would prefer the five-period schedule because it would be exhausting to stare at the screen for eight to 10 periods a day. Even with the five-period schedule, sometimes I find myself losing focus in the middle of the day after staring at the screen for too long.” —Anonymous, sophomore

“The school should devise a completely new schedule for the first few days to a week. This schedule should be half days but a full 10-period schedule to gradually integrate us into our traditional periods. These days, work should be productively assigned within these shortened periods to slowly accustom us to this schedule. After these first few days, I think that school should go back to its traditional ten periods per day schedule because the five-day schedule was a lot less efficient in that less work was being done.” —Brian Lee, junior

“We should keep the five periods per day schedule but include a lunch/free period each day. That way, one student doesn't end up having no frees on a certain day. The five period days, in my opinion, were better because I wasn't bombarded with homework from all the subjects I would have if it was 10 periods per day.” —Melody Lew, sophomore

“I prefer the 10-period option because I want to take more classes. There's a lot of electives and APs open to juniors so I want room on my schedule for it. Also, the five-period schedule makes it hard for me to learn personally. I feel like I lose a lot of what I learn when I only see the teacher every other day and sometimes after three days when it is the weekend.” —Lauren Lee, sophomore

“We should keep the schedule we have now because it gives us more time to relax between periods and allows us more flexibility to do work. However, I do think it [allows] teachers to assign more work than they would ordinarily. That being said, I do still prefer the five-period schedule.” —Bella Rosen, freshman

“We should revert back to the traditional 10-period school day since that would allow us to learn the curriculum in the amount of time it was intended for. Right now, I feel like the curriculum for pretty much all of my classes is really rushed, despite having longer classes. I do think that it's going to be a really stressful change, though, so I hope that if the administration does decide to use the 10-period schedule, they find a way to make the transition back to it smooth (ex. leniency with grades, shorter class times, longer breaks between classes, etc.).” —Hana Kaloudis, sophomore

“We should keep the five periods per day schedule since, hopefully, most of us have adjusted to it. I think having the schedule broken up would allow for work to be better divided. People can spend more time preparing for a test or doing the homework, instead of having every class's work due the next day.” —Elaine Ye, freshman

“The 10-period day works better. With the 10 periods per day, teachers don't feel rushed to teach faster and students aren't pressured to absorb more information in one sitting. With the 10-period day, everyone has more time to learn.” —Giridhar Bonu, sophomore

“Well, 10 periods with different classes are twice as many classes to take in a day. That’s twice as many topics of information you have to absorb, so why not just immerse yourself in five topics every day and get a deeper understanding.” —Jeremy Kwok, sophomore

“With 1-5, 6-10 schedules, it'll allow students and teachers alike to have more time for themselves instead of doing busy work: there would be more transition time, later classes, and more extracurricular/PSAL time. Don't confuse this with losing the prestige and overall high education that may come with it. Teachers will find their way to make sure that their curriculum is being taught, like during these times.” —Anonymous, freshman

“Stuyvesant should keep their 1-5 and 6-10 period schedule. There would be more learning time for a single subject rather than jamming information of nearly nine different subjects inside your head in a single day. This would allow students to fully comprehend the lesson and give them more time to think about it before jumping right into the next lesson the next day. It would also relieve stress for students because they have more time to focus on a subject's assignment every day. —Calvin Zhang, freshman

“We should keep the schedule as is (five periods per day) when we go back to school in the fall. I feel like having an extra day before having to hand in the homework for a class relieves a lot of stress, because it doesn’t feel like there are so many things due every single day [...] Especially since next year, assuming we go back to in-person school, students would have to deal with commute [...] as well as staying later in school for extracurriculars,” —Erica Chen, freshman

“I would choose to keep the five periods a day because I feel like there is less work. I mean, I haven’t experienced in-person school yet, so I can’t say for sure but the current schedule seems to work better for me. I would assume there is less work than usual with homework being due every other day. However, it would be interesting to see what authentic Stuy would be like.” —Natalie Keung, freshman

“It’s better to keep the schedule as is, five periods per day, just because it is less stressful on the students, and also it’s usually a shorter day instead of having kids go from 8:00 to 2:30, which is probably tiring on the students. Also, when we have the five period days, we have less homework, so you have more time to complete it. And I think the off-day is very important because you are being swarmed with homework from all subjects every single day. It would be tiring, especially during this pandemic.” —Anonymous, junior

“I’d rather keep our current schedule of five periods a day. I really like getting to sleep in, and since the classes are longer, I get to spend more time with some of my favorite teachers. I also get a break from classes since we have class every other day, so I have some time to rest and don’t have to do homework for all 10 classes right away.” —Rachel Lin, junior

“For one to five, six through 10, that is better because students are better able to manage their time and they are able to have less homework for [fewer] subjects than for 1-10, where you have 10 different subjects at most that you need to do homework for. But I see the upside of having [the] 1-10 schedule in that teachers get to see more so it's a better quality of teaching.” —Ravindra Mangar, sophomore

“From a subjective standpoint, I’d rather five period days instead of 10 period days as it has been a lot less stressful for me and the homework load has been a lot more manageable. However, in playing devil’s advocate and stepping in the shoes of my teachers, I do realize that 10 period days are favorable in terms of getting the whole curriculum down in a less stressful way. It makes sense when considering how many of my teachers have expressed their concern over how little time they have to teach the whole class.” —Koey Ng, sophomore

“I'd like it if we kept the five-period days, but only because I've grown used to it. I've already fallen into the habit of doing homework for different classes on alternating days [...] I also think it might be better for the incoming freshmen to start off with ten-period days so they won't have to adjust like we would if we do go back to the traditional schedule in the future.” —Celeste Hoo, freshman

“Five periods a day, because it's generally just easier to learn, to focus in class, and to complete my work. I've been able to settle down and focus on just three to four subjects a day, and I've learned better, even when there's homework due between days because I've had more time to work on homework and properly digest the material [...] It's just more efficient, and I've definitely gotten much better sleep with half the amount of stress, which in turn makes it easier to focus in class.” —Elicia Chau, sophomore

“Probably the 10 period one. The most important thing is maximizing class time. Because of APs, it would be a cram if there’s not enough class time. When it's five periods, we have less class time, which is why I prefer it. I also feel like class time would be too long and I prefer for class to be more frequent.” —Larissa Yue, sophomore

“We should go back to the 10 periods per day schedule because now we are back to going to school every day and we should follow what it was like before the pandemic. I think that the five periods per day schedule is a temporary change because of remote learning.” —Kathleen Zhang, sophomore

“I would prefer for Stuyvesant to return to the regular 10-period classes when we go back to school. I personally just can’t imagine sitting in a classroom for 55 minutes straight [...] and what’s even worse is that the five-period schedule doesn’t accommodate lunch. I think it would just be best if we just go back to the way we were.” —Anonymous, sophomore

“I like how we get to wake up earlier with the five-period schedule and homework is due every other day, but I’d also like to return to normalcy if we could. [...] I just hope the seniors next year will be able to have a large selection of electives to choose from.” —Anonymous, junior

“I’d rather we keep the current five period a day system. I think this is preferable because it allows for more time in between classes and will allow for us to maintain a more consistent and healthy sleep schedule.” —Ben Balodis, sophomore

“Though I like the five-period school day over online, it just wouldn’t be right in the typical in-person classes. I want to return to the old days where [we] used to have every class for only around 45 minutes.” —Anonymous, junior

“Stuyvesant should definitely keep 1-5 and 6-10 days since going back to school going into sophomore year from remote is such a drastic change already. Plus, I think 1-5 days would benefit people who have to commute.” —Ivy Huang, freshman