Of the 75% of Harker Journalism Editorial Board members who voted, 92% agreed with the stance of this editorial.

What was supposed to be a fun spirit event to celebrate student athletics at the end of the semester turned into a stressful experience due to the lack of transparency surrounding the event and the extra load of end-of-semester work. While events like spirit rallies or assemblies can help relieve some stress in students’ day-to-day lives by creating an uplifting environment, they often achieve the opposite effect and may prevent students from studying or completing homework.

The week before winter finals, there were no morning office hours on Tuesday because of advisory parties and none on Thursday because Big Assembly Day shifted the schedule. As a result, many students took matters into their own hands and carved that free study time out for themselves by working during the advisory party.

The original bell schedule consisted of a seven-class school day, but in January 2016, Harker tested a new block bell schedule to relieve students’ stress. After the success of the six-week pilot, Harker fully implemented the block schedule starting in August 2016.

Our current block schedule improves upon the previous schedule by allocating more time for lunch and office hours and holding only three or four classes per day instead of all seven. On an average week with no special schedules, the block schedule hosts five to six periods of office hours; typically, two or three of them happen in the morning. Yet afternoon office hours often conflict with other after school activities like sports games, tournaments and appointments, which make morning office hours more accessible for students.

Many students acknowledge that changing the typical schedule to accommodate more space for office hours can alleviate stress. According to a voluntary Harker Aquila Google Form for students which garnered 269 responses, slightly more than a third of the student body, 85.5% of respondents wished the current bell schedule allotted more time to office hours, with 66.2% stating that office hours was the most stress-relieving way to spend the morning block, which runs from 9:35 to 10:40 a.m. A sizable minority, 23.4%, also feel that advisory is the most stress-relieving activity. Overall, students gravitate towards the choices where they have the most freedom to decide how to spend their time.

Although empty space during the day may not seem to help students’ productivity, it actually trains them to allocate their time wisely. In particular, the absence of a mandatory activity during the morning block can shorten the long list of tasks students must complete each day, lessening their burden bit by bit. Students can use this time however they wish, whether it be starting assignments early or simply socializing with friends. Either way, when other events cut into this valuable free time, students are the ones who bear the negative consequences.

During the pandemic, which severely affected students’ mental health, we frequently dedicated entire days to office hours or left the full morning block to be free time. Even if we did not use all of those hours for that specific purpose, having the opportunity to sleep in or spend time with family allowed us to assess ourselves amidst a trying time and reset ourselves to move forward. Taking the lessons we learned about mental health into the current day can still benefit us.

Another option is to move the morning block to the very start of the day so that students can have the option of sleeping in or attending office hours. Incorporating more open space in our schedule teaches students how to spread out our work more and to give ourselves breaks in between work.

Classes, assessments and extracurriculars already pack each day to the brim. Because Harker fosters a rigorous environment built on hard work and diligence, students need more breathing room to rejuvenate and energize themselves to overcome future obstacles and persevere through the school day.