Splitting advisory from lunch this year is an excellent change.

There are a number of reasons that students say that having advisory linked with lunch is better. One such reason being that it is harder to make up or retake tests and quizzes because lunch is the longer of the two breaks during the day lasting the same amount of time as any other period with advisory lagging behind at a half hour. This makes it significantly harder for students to retake or make up tests and quizzes because if they have multiple teachers they need to see, they must either sacrifice lunch so they have a full period to do what they need to do or reschedule for a time in the future which may not be possible in certain circumstances.

The second reason that students say this is a bad change is because there are only two periods that come before advisory. Advisory, being the dedicated time for students to visit teachers, is making it hard for students to see teachers from their morning classes about a new topic they don’t understand. If a student needs extra help for a new topic being covered in third period, they must once again either lose out on lunch time or wait until the next day before being able to receive the help they wanted.

This all leads to the final reason students say the split is bad is due to the reduction in social activity. With lunch and advisory linked, there is a healthy and long break between classes to see friends or sit in a good club meeting. The split creates an awkward cut between the two that can make meetings feel unnaturally short from their abrupt endings. Combined with advisory being the best time to find a teacher to speak with, lunch feels like the only opportunity students have to be with friends.

With all that said, splitting advisory from lunch is still an excellent and much needed change. All of the points against the split are valid points for changing back to the way things were, however, these points against the split fail to see a major positive. The school day feels far shorter than it was before the split. The school day is six hours and 45 minutes. Last year, one hour and 12 minutes were the advisory and lunch block. Students had to power through four periods that were each 42 minutes for a total of two hours and 48 minutes (excluding the five minute transition periods) before the first and only break. By giving students a break after the first two periods for a total of one hour and 24 minutes (excluding transition periods), this gives students a chance to finally breathe during the day. A strategy that teachers give students all the time is to chunk out assignments to make them more manageable and feel shorter. The same principle can be applied to the school day. By blocking it up into three chunks instead of two, it is guaranteed to feel like a far easier day to push through.

In the end, it is really all about preference. As students start concerning themselves with colleges where schedules are much more customizable, it is good to expose them to different kinds of breaks during the day with a few long ones or several short ones.