It’s the beginning of a new school year at Park, and much to every student’s surprise, the class schedule has changed once again. The new schedule moved Park Connections to Wednesdays only, and moved Action Thursdays to the end of Wednesdays, now called “Action Wednesdays.” Action Wednesday in particular has been racking Park students’ brains. Is this addition really necessary?

This brings up lots of questions. A big one is the question of seniors leaving early. Seniors who have an open hour seventh, are allowed to leave school early. The same thing goes for seniors who have an open first hour. This schedule change restricts the seniors’ ability to leave school early on Wednesdays. What if those seniors have to leave early to go to their job? Some seniors are banking on their open hours.  Now seniors who may rely on leaving early are forced to sit through a required Action Wednesday class.

The new schedule changes can be rough for teachers, too. With Action Wednesdays, teachers now need to teach a different subject in addition to what they’re already teaching. They also have more students to manage and deal with. Action Wednesday also makes the other hours that they teach shorter. Teachers have to help students learn, and can’t without time to teach. Surely making a syllabus shortened enough to teach Park students well is a hard task to begin with. 

What was Park’s goal for Action Wednesday? It seems they tried to give students a wider variety of activities so they can learn more. If that was Park’s goal, did they really succeed? If students are missing crucial time to learn at their real classes, how can a worthless elective at the end of the day allow them to learn more?  It doesn’t seem worth the time. 

Ultimately, Park doesn’t need the extra class hour. It seems as though administration has made school harder this year, instead of giving students an outlet to learn. Let’s hope students can persevere and succeed through this poorly scheduled year.