MHS has made a lot of changes this year, and one of them is that there are no more off periods for seniors. What did this year’s seniors do to deserve this?

Nothing.

We didn’t even get a chance to take them.

In the past, seniors had the freedom to take a period off. Why can’t we?

Jenny Nayden, senior, said she knew many students who doubled up their junior year and even sophomore year to get enough credits to get the option of an off period.

I am also one of these many students who did this. I had doubled up on math, but now all that work was for nothing because I’m not getting the off-period perk in return. We were expecting to be able to have an easier senior year after just having the most stressful year, junior year, aka ACT testing. Now seniors have no choice, but to take what some feel are pointless classes to fill up their schedule.

“I took three gym classes because I didn’t want to take another class with work to do [that would] overwhelm [me],” said Kenzie Toland, senior.

Several seniors now feel forced to take classes that they deem completely unnecessary for their future.

For example, this year I had already picked all the classes I needed and wanted to take, but I still had so much room left, so I was put into a class I have zero interest in it, which could lead to a bad grade. I shouldn’t be punished with a bad grade that would affect my GPA just because I had to take a class to offset the fact that we have no more off periods.

And GPA is everything right now for seniors because, you know, college.

“I thought that off periods for seniors gave them time to talk to college counselors and work on essays,” said  Nayden.

College is on every senior’s mind, and having a full schedule of classes without a break will make the college process that much harder. Students could use the off period as a time to work on college applications.

Also, students could use this time to finish their homework, or study, or even get help from their teachers with their work.

“I think [off periods] are useful because they allow a break during the day to study and get yourself prepared for each class while you are still in school mode,” said Toland.

She further added, “It’s better than after school work because it’s usually late,” meaning a lot of seniors are in sports or after school activities or have jobs, and they don’t have enough time to either do homework or get enough sleep. We usually have to choose as all of these can’t be done.

“It’s unfair because I have to either stay up very late and do my homework and get little sleep, or I get sleep, but then I’m not prepared for my classes,” Nayden said.

Students who are very involved after school shouldn’t be punished with no time to do homework or sleep. They deserve an off period.

“If I had [off periods], I would study for my classes, get ahead in work and occasionally take naps, so I can catch up on sleep,” said Toland.

Staff members might argue that students would abuse the privilege of having an off period. Yes, some students are going to abuse the system, but not everyone will. The school should allow us to be more independent and allow us to make our own decision because when we all go to college, we won’t have teacher trying to push us to go to class. School should get us more prepared for college, and giving seniors the privilege of off periods is one way it could do that.

There are more benefits of having off periods for seniors than not having them at all. Seniors this year don’t deserve to get this privilege taken away from them if they never had the chance to take advantage of it.

MHS has made a lot of changes this year, and one of them is that there are no more off periods for seniors. What did this year’s seniors do to deserve this?

Nothing.

We didn’t even get a chance to take them.

In the past, seniors had the freedom to take a period off. Why can’t we?

Jenny Nayden, senior, said she knew many students who doubled up their junior year and even sophomore year to get enough credits to get the option of an off period.

I am also one of these many students who did this. I had doubled up on math, but now all that work was for nothing because I’m not getting the off-period perk in return. We were expecting to be able to have an easier senior year after just having the most stressful year, junior year, aka ACT testing. Now seniors have no choice, but to take what some feel are pointless classes to fill up their schedule.

“I took three gym classes because I didn’t want to take another class with work to do [that would] overwhelm [me],” said Kenzie Toland, senior.

Several seniors now feel forced to take classes that they deem completely unnecessary for their future.

For example, this year I had already picked all the classes I needed and wanted to take, but I still had so much room left, so I was put into a class I have zero interest in it, which could lead to a bad grade. I shouldn’t be punished with a bad grade that would affect my GPA just because I had to take a class to offset the fact that we have no more off periods.

And GPA is everything right now for seniors because, you know, college.

“I thought that off periods for seniors gave them time to talk to college counselors and work on essays,” said  Nayden.

College is on every senior’s mind, and having a full schedule of classes without a break will make the college process that much harder. Students could use the off period as a time to work on college applications.

Also, students could use this time to finish their homework, or study, or even get help from their teachers with their work.

“I think [off periods] are useful because they allow a break during the day to study and get yourself prepared for each class while you are still in school mode,” said Toland.

She further added, “It’s better than after school work because it’s usually late,” meaning a lot of seniors are in sports or after school activities or have jobs, and they don’t have enough time to either do homework or get enough sleep. We usually have to choose as all of these can’t be done.

“It’s unfair because I have to either stay up very late and do my homework and get little sleep, or I get sleep, but then I’m not prepared for my classes,” Nayden said.

Students who are very involved after school shouldn’t be punished with no time to do homework or sleep. They deserve an off period.

“If I had [off periods], I would study for my classes, get ahead in work and occasionally take naps, so I can catch up on sleep,” said Toland.

Staff members might argue that students would abuse the privilege of having an off period. Yes, some students are going to abuse the system, but not everyone will. The school should allow us to be more independent and allow us to make our own decision because when we all go to college, we won’t have teacher trying to push us to go to class. School should get us more prepared for college, and giving seniors the privilege of off periods is one way it could do that.

There are more benefits of having off periods for seniors than not having them at all. Seniors this year don’t deserve to get this privilege taken away from them if they never had the chance to take advantage of it.