Not every school around the world has block days. Block scheduling is where two days out of the week students will only have half of their classes on one day and the other half on the next day. So the question that is beginning to be asked is if not all schools use this system are block days necessary? Is the split scheduling at West actually helping students?

The Benefits of Block Days

Some students find block schedules to be very beneficial to their style of learning. The hour-and-a-half class period, as opposed to the normal forty-five minutes, gives more of an opportunity to focus and get more work done.

“I like block days, I feel like it gives me a break in between the week. If I had to choose to keep them or get rid of them I would definitely pick to keep them” Cara Simon said.

Getting work done isn’t the only thing people love about block bells. With longer classes, it usually leaves an open slot for extra “me-time”. With there not being very much work and there being a very long bell students take this chance to their advantage. This is a moment for some students where they can just sit back and relax.

The Disadvantages of Block Days

To get more of a deeper feel on how the West community feels about block days, I posted a poll on a story with only West students and posed the question “Do you like Block days? Would you prefer we had them vs did not?” This is what the poll revealed: Although the results didn’t show a drastic difference we can see that people leaned more towards not liking them and wanting to get rid of them. For some students, the longer bells feel like they drag on and they make the class and learning unenjoyable.

“I only like one block day and not the other. The way my classes are set up, one day is more focused and one day is more chill. So I don’t really like block days I guess. I don’t know, it’s a love-hate relationship” Sammy Jefferson said. 

With split scheduling, on certain days students have more serious work and the next none at all. This is causing people to feel a slight sense of overwhelm and making them resent block scheduling as a whole.

The Verdict

Block days are really a kind of to each their own kind of situation. All in all it’s about how you best obtain your information. Whether that be through a longer bell or a shorter one, it all just comes down to what type of student you are.