Recently, there has been an uproar about our school’s change in policy related to the ten-minute break on Thursdays before 7th period. Students once used the ten-minute break to catch up with friends and unwind, but now, that has been cut short, to just a regular 5-minute passing period. The school has decided to replace this beloved break with a school news broadcast named The Jungle.
The Jungle is a video broadcast that the school now plays during the last five minutes of 5th period, talking about upcoming sporting and school events alongside short, fun, student interviews asking their opinions on random topics. Even though this is a fun new addition, I would much rather prefer the ten-minute break.
I feel that the ten-minute break helped me refresh before having to go through another 80-minute block period, and I think that most students would agree with this. On Thursdays, our block schedule can be quite exhausting, with four, 80-minute block periods and only a few short breaks, by the end of the day I feel drained. Even though ten minutes does not seem like much, it makes a difference. With walking to class already taking up most of the 5 minutes of passing period, we get no time to reboot before the next class. With the ten-minute break, we get some time to talk to our friends and just take a breath, before having to get to our last class of the day.
The timing of the ten-minute break is also important, since it is placed between 5th and 7th period, it is spaced at a good time to give us an additional break. It makes sense to put it during this time since we have nutrition break and advisory after 1st period, then we have 3rd period, and then it’s lunch. Considering those breaks, the ten-minute break fits perfectly after 5th period, allowing us to have a break between every class. Also with the ten-minute break student productivity in their next class will increase because they will have gotten a break from doing work before they have to go and do more work. I also think it will help with our focus because due to social media, our attention span has decreased tremendously, so a break will be helpful.
One reason the school wanted to eliminate the ten-minute break was because students were showing up late to 7th period. But now students will still be late since they are given five fewer minutes to get where they need to be. With the ten-minute break, students would get to class mostly on time, but now with just the regular passing period, some students might still be late if their classes are far apart.
I strongly believe that the ten-minute break should be brought back, considering that its benefits outweigh its disadvantages by a landslide. And for students who are late, well students are late all the time anyway, ten-minute break or not.
