I’ll get straight to the point: the seven-day schedule is starting to be inconvenient. We’ve had it long enough that I’m used to it, but I still think there are a variety of issues that should be addressed in the future. Obviously, the schedule is not going to change in the middle of the year, but who knows? Maybe an administrator will read this and say to themselves, “Hey, Michael might be onto something here.” All I know is that, as someone who has been far down on the heights called Dyker since 5th grade, I’ve experienced my fair share of schedules, and I think that, as a senior, I should share some of my wisdom. 

Is it not Day 3?:

The first issue (and probably the most obvious one) is that the current schedule is a seven day rotation. Correct me if I’m wrong, but there are not seven weekdays. There are five. After a long weekend, the relaxed brain starts to wonder, “was Friday Day 4 or Day 7? I had calculus last period on Friday. Does that mean today is Day 1?” You could just wing it and hope that you have physics first, but if you’re wrong, you, a tardy student, might end up having to write a poem for Mr. Larose’s English class. One solution is to just look at your Google Calendar, but wouldn’t it be nice if on a Monday, you just have a Monday schedule? 

When does class end?:

I am not complaining about having an hour and five minute free period, but after a while, an hour and five minutes of any class starts to get to you. I remember back in sixth grade in 2017, we had a five day schedule with nine 45 minute periods a day, along with two 30-minute periods for lunch and Form Time (which was like recess). Each class met almost every day of the week. The drawbacks then were that there was no time allocated for getting from one class to the other, and that it was technically possible to have homework from every class due the next day. Despite all that, I still think I would rather have at least one or two more periods a day if it meant they were all 20 minutes shorter.  

So clubs are canceled again?:

This issue also stems from the seven-day rotation. Since the Clubs, Assembly, and DEIB Blocks all only happen once every rotation, there is no consistency in when each occurs. We’ve seen this year how Assembly may replace a Clubs or DEIB Block without the reverse happening. If there was a Clubs Block every Monday throughout the year, clubs that rely on deadlines, like the Polygon, would be able to operate more efficiently. The same goes for affinity groups. It’s hard to continue a discussion that started over a week ago. Meeting consistency is key to accomplishing anything.

Do we have Assembly today?:

My final critique is the one that I really do believe needs to be addressed soon. As I mentioned,  Assembly does not occur regularly, hence why the school tends to take time away from clubs and DEIB. In Middle School, we had Assembly twice a week (it was in the theater, not the Chapel). This time was dedicated to announcements, author visits, play previews, and all other kinds of community events. As far as I know, that was the case in the Upper School as well for a long time. If I were to create the schedule, I would make it so we had two assemblies every week, with one on Monday and one on Friday. The catch is that one would be dedicated to announcements and the other would be dedicated to student organized presentations or guest speakers. The time we spend as one big Poly community is valuable. I think we should push for more of it.

I completely understand that the schedule we have today is the result of years of trial and error. The flex block has saved me multiple times, and since you usually never have more than one class for two days in a row, having homework due the next day is rare. I’m grateful for all the good things that have come from this schedule, I just think that there are things we need to improve on, and I hope that we as a community can do just that in the future.