Time Becomes More of an Issue in High School

Caleb Kowalewski, Staff Reporter

High school has staggering changes for students transitioning out of middle school.  There’s more of a struggle to balance one’s commitments and manage one’s time.
It became apparent within the first few days of school that the high school schedule was going to be more intense than middle school, but even if the realization was quick, the adjustment took time.  It takes students a while to get used to harder classes, several-hour daily sports practices, homework and other extracurricular activities.

Late night studying and early morning wake up calls are stressful, too.

“[School’s] not as fun when I go to bed at 12,” said Jonathan Aube, freshman.

Time has always been an issue when it comes to school commitments, but I feel that middle schools don’t stress enough that having a personal schedule is a staple when entering high school. Planning out a schedule prevents one from overworking and forgetting an assignment.

These time management issues should be brought up since high school dropout rates are always a concern, and some students may drop out because they don’t have strategies to handle the stress, particularly if they don’t learn how to do so early on, such as in middle school.

Managing one’s time is more important than ever in high school with more extracurricular activities, sports demands and homework from advanced classes.

By this time of year, students look visibly tired every day trying to manage all their commitments. I can tell even with myself that I’m way too tired to go through the rigors of school, practice and homework on a regular basis. I never really went through such a schedule in middle school and feel teachers should have stressed the time management change even more before I got to high school.

Because of this, I am finding that high school is a whole new world; it’s nothing like middle school, and I’m not the only one who feels that way.

“Middle school lacks essential needs that high school can require,” said Freshman Aaron DeLara.

Middle school does not prepare students for the difficult grades, homework assignments and tests in high school, and I think it is middle schools job to prepare us.

And students try to balance all this while coping with a new social life.

Because high school blends lots of middle schools together, many freshmen can struggle at first meeting new friends in their classes where they may not know anyone.  Another skill set that would be helpful to learn in middle school is how to meet new people in new environments.  While students learn it as they go, direct instruction on this would be beneficial, as meeting new people will always be an essential life skill.

High school is a time for change—some good, some bad.  Making new friends has been great; learning time management skills under pressure has not, but as DeLara said, “You have to figure out a way to manage time better,” which many students do.  It just takes time.