For some time now, the administration has been researching block scheduling as a possible course of action for EBHS in the distant future. In Bear Hub’s previous article, we reviewed the different options the Scheduling Committee is exploring and their merits. With the sudden shift to remote learning as a result of COVID-19, it has become an interesting opportunity for the school community to experiment with a form of block scheduling.

Since I had previously reported on the administration’s Block Schedule research, I was curious about my peers’ attitudes toward the shift during distance-learning. The new schedule which rolled out two weeks ago features an A/B scheduling system where students have their Periods 1-4 on A days and Periods 5-12 on B days. This new system has given me plenty of time to complete homework and explore my hobbies, and I wanted to find out if other students agree.

Conducting a survey via Instagram, I found generally positive views on this new scheduling system with 70% of respondents favoring it over the regular 1-12 schedule. Rachel Bernadskii, 12, commented that “Students have so much more flexibility which is great. In a regular year, this would be really helpful for students balancing many responsibilities such as work and extracurriculars.” Others shared similar sentiments, with Bear Hub’s Caroline Serpico saying that “Balancing only a few classes a day has also allowed me to confidently practice more responsibility in my work without feeling completely overwhelmed by eight classes at once.”

On the other hand, some students such as Bear Hub’s Sophie Brown, say “I don’t like that the block schedule places the same weight on all classes because I feel like I could benefit more from an extra period for lab.” Meghna Thekepat, 12, feels that block scheduling is ideal for online learning; however “in school, a 1-12 schedule is much better since it allows students to learn little by little more frequently.”

For now, we can conclude that the distance-learning block schedule seems to be helping ease the stress of transitioning to distance learning.