During the week before the first day of school, the buzz of the new school year is impossible to ignore. The news of schedules starts to spread and, before you know it, everyone is refreshing Genesis because the time has finally come. As the clock turns from 2:59 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., the calls and messages have already begun. Whether it’s calling your best friend to compare schedules, or going down the list of classes and mentally preparing yourself in order to get through the school year, you are guaranteed to hit with one of these two emotions: excitement or disappointment.
Disappointment with schedules seems to be the more common of the two, especially for those who ended up with no classes with their friends. However, a different problem for many students is the fact that the structure of the schedules causes the students to not be able to take certain classes. Students who had this problem were surprised to open their schedules and see a class that they never asked for or an unexpected IDT that they never requested.
Chloe Holzmann (’28) says that she was excited to take AP Seminar this year, only to find that her IDT couldn’t be removed. Since Tenafly High School has lab days, it is understandable that the classes sometimes don’t align with the lab days. However, this issue has happened to numerous students. IDTs are definitely exciting to see on the IDT calendar, but for many students having an IDT for a whole period for the rest of the year means having to sacrifice a class.
Claire Yoon (’28), an accomplished violinist, had a similar issue. She wasn’t able to take honors orchestra as a class this year and had an IDT instead. She was able to switch her IDT out for Journalism, but unfortunately she isn’t able to participate with the orchestra for this school year.
“I’m pretty disappointed about the fact that I can’t participate in honors orchestra simply because violin has been something that I’ve devoted myself to for many years and genuinely enjoy,” she said. “At the same time, I was also granted the opportunity to take a class that I would never have been able to take otherwise, and I’m surprisingly very pleased about that.”
This issue has happened to a couple of musicians here at THS, and having to choose between an IDT or a class that wouldn’t be your first choice can have complications.
Scheduling conflicts have been apparent, with many students flooding the Guidance office the Wednesday that students officially returned on the first day of school. Students are familiar with the idea of lab days, but not many actually understand how it works and how it affects scheduling.
Since schedules come out the week before school starts, it is difficult for the guidance counselors to get to all students about their desired class in a given time period. The rush of everyone trying to get their schedules fixed can take a while, especially if students can’t fit a class into their schedule and are still thinking about what classes they wish to take.
The time frame of only getting schedules a week before school starts caused an influx of commotion during the first week back. Getting schedules earlier in the summer would help ease our way back into the school year, and allow students the chance to go over any changes or misunderstandings in our schedules. This would give people more time to understand why certain classes aren’t available to them and what they want to take instead.
To many students, schedules are a very important part of the school year. They determine friends, teachers, and the experience for the rest of the year. Having a schedule that students are confident about can make for a more positive experience, rather than taking a class just to fill a requirement. Although the structure of THS’s schedules can be restrictive for certain classes, students deserve to take the classes that they feel passionate about.
