When walking into school, tired and hungry, it is always a nice treat when you know you get to leave at lunch time. Half-days are great because the shorter classes brighten the spirits of the students and they relieve stress. While this viewpoint is shared by most of the student body, there are those who find half-days a waste of time.
There are typically two types of teachers on half-days: those who try to squeeze 45-minute classes into about a half an hour window, and those who acknowledge there is not a sufficient amount of time to get in a whole class period of teaching and decide to make it a relaxed day. Senior Max Moinfar had experienced both of these kinds of teachers, which has led him to make an opinion on half-days. “Half-days are a blessing and a curse. It’s really nice having a shorter day and shortened classes, but it’s kind of pointless because we still have to come to school and a lot of the teachers don’t teach,” Moinfar said.
Other students only see the good in half-days and see the cup as half-full rather than half-empty. If you look at them the right way, half-days are better than nothing. Senior Kyra Goldstein is one of the “cup half-full” students and appreciates the half-days. “I like half-days because it is a nice break from school. During the classes where teachers prepare a lesson it’s nice knowing we don’t have to sit through 45 minutes of lectures, and during the classes where the teachers don’t prepare lessons, us students usually have free time to catch up on other work in other classes or just have free time to relax,” Goldstein said.
Senior Eric Quam also sees the good in half-days and thinks there should be more added to the school year. “Half-days are great because knowing the day ends faster than normal puts everyone in a great mood and makes coming to school more bearable. Normally we only have half-days when there is an administration reason or holiday, but I think by adding more mental health half-days students will be less stressed and will want to come to school more,” Quam said.
There are also teachers who see half-days as the perfect amount of time to fit in a quiz. While sometimes this can be a good use of a shortened class period, other students feel that it stresses them out more than if it was on a regular day. “I think it depends on the quiz or test, but normally I prefer quizzes to be on regular schedule days so I don’t feel as rushed. Even if there is enough time to finish the quiz, feeling pressured to finish fast just makes all of it more stressful,” Goldstein said.
