I felt exhausted as I progressed through all my periods from first to seventh on Wednesday, Oct. 8, and I was ready for a break. The lack of block days these past few weeks has reminded me of how much I love block days, and how much better the week would be if we had four blocks days every week.

Just from a work standpoint, block days are much more relaxing than days with seven periods. Instead of doing my homework and studying for seven classes, I only need to do my work for four classes. When I come to school on block days, my backpack is much lighter. We also have breaks, either brunch or lunch, between all the classes except for sixth and seventh, which make the day more relaxing. The late start also helps me stay energetic in the morning: instead of biking to school not fully conscious, I am more awake and feel ready to start the day.

Students and teachers can also get much more done in a block day class then in a regular class. With only 50 minutes per class during the typical seven-period day, there is usually only time for half a lecture since it takes class time for teachers to start the class and take roll. Each class is also more chaotic because teachers try to fit in as much material as they can. The next day, teachers forget where the class left off in the discussion or do not remember where they ended the lecture. Classes are much less efficient this way. During block days, you can actually finish a chemistry lab, watch an uninterrupted movie or complete a lecture and thorough discussion. During block day classes, students have less work, but they learn more. If two block day classes can have such a big effect on the week, image what four block days will do; the productivity of all classes will dramatically increase, and that is the point of school after all. Furthermore, students will not run on merely five hours of sleep a night, since the workload will decrease even more if the number of block days is doubled.

I hope that I will only have interesting college classes, but if not, I have already learned how to deal with monotonous classes and reap the benefits of more riveting classes. So, I will say now, in anticipation of another debate on the schedule, that we should switch to four-day block schedules. Just think of how much less stressful your day is on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and imagine almost an entire week like that. For all the ways the school tries to reduce students’ stress, changing the schedule to four-day blocks might actually help while simultaneously improving students’ performances.

Other districts share my view that more block days increase student performance. When ten Massachusetts public schools increased the length of their classes, students scored higher on the Massachusetts Comprehension Assessment System in all subjects, according to an article in The Boston Globe. However, this has not been true for all schools. According to The Washington Post, many Washington schools are switching from block schedules to seven period days. The Washington Post article states that Albert Einstein High School made this switch because student performance was not improving, and students were dropping out because they could not tolerate the longer classes, according to Albert Einstein Principal James G. Fernandez. At Paly, students do not drop classes because the block days are monotonous; rather, they drop because their workloads are enormous. Having more block days will reduce students’ workloads, so it should also decrease the amount of students dropping classes at Paly.

I have had my fair share of block periods, during which I have kept watching the clock that seemed to remain at the same time forever. But most classes are not dull, and if they are, then students are freed from that class one day a week with the current schedule. However, if we had four block days a week, each class would only meet three times a week, and students with boring classes will have plenty of time to recuperate from them. Dull classes are usually the same, regardless of whether they last 50 minutes or 90 minutes; they merely consist of longer lectures, more worksheets, or longer films. In college, we will have to cope with two-hour-long classes, so we might as well get used to longer classes now anyway.

This non-block day week has felt longer than usual because my classes met every day, so I was assigned more work and slept less then I normally do. If taking out two block days can make the week that much harder, imagine what adding two more block days can do.