No flex freedom

During the 2018-19 school year, Samo piloted a schedule called “Flex-time” on a few fateful days in October and February. It consisted of two days of block schedule during the week and an hour long study period on each of those days. There were mixed reviews among students and teachers, but regardless, by the end of the year, it was confirmed that flex-time would be implemented during the 2019-20 school year. However, on the first official day of flex-time, students were not provided with the opportunities promised. The purpose of flex-time is for students to catch up on homework, classwork or tests and get the extra help they need to succeed. But most importantly, students were supposed to choose their flex classes themselves. Contrarily, flex-time was nothing more than another class for the first three weeks The seminar that replaced six hours of potential learning was unnecessary for the majority of students. It catered toward a small group of freshmen, to which all the necessary information could have been relayed at orientation or in a simple email blast.  One student, Josh Teichman (’21), vocalized his opinion as direct disgust. “It takes away from the purpose of flex-time by giving us redundant information that could be given online [during] our own time,” Teichman said. Teichman’s opinion is one that antagonizes the wasted flex-time. He proposes alternatives in an effort to display the futility of this wasted class time. The fact that the information is easily accessible and could potentially not have disrupted the intentions of flex-time supports the fact that the first few hours of flex-time were not taken advantage of.  On the other hand, student Kate Javerbaum (’22) took more of a stance of annoyance.  “I don’t care about extracurriculars; I just want to do my homework,” Javerbaum said. She explained the general desire for more time to do homework and study for tests, pointing out that she could have had more free time had flex-time not been used instead for advertisement of afterschool activities. She believes flex-time is pointless. Either way, the dislike of these first few weeks of flex scheduling is apparent. A general consensus among students is that flex-time has been ineffective and unwelcomed, but they have good reason to think so. Not only are these pointless powerpoints taking up valuable work time, but they are also poorly put together and hard to watch. With slides that switch without warning and videos with inaudible audio, these presentations are, realistically, not helping anyone. So there really was no purpose to these hours of suffering. Hopefully, actual flex-time will deliver in the way it is supposed to, instead of being the pointless hour it has been thus far.