Early release days are one of my favorite parts of going to Liberty Public Schools. Nothing beats looking at the school’s schedule and seeing next week we get released early. So of course when I learned that every Wednesday we leave about 40 minutes early, I got really excited. There were a few side effects of the early release Wednesday schedule. For example, there is no Advisory on Wednesday, and buses run on the same schedule as they do all other days of the week.
When the news of no Advisory on Wednesday hit the student body, my Whole Advisory class agreed this was a positive change. Last year we had a lot of free days in Advisory due to the short and infrequent lessons. Most of my classmates started to complain that Advisory could be cut off a day or more to either increase the length of Liberty Hour or for an earlier release. To our surprise the decision to drop off Advisory this year for a day came through and Advisory has the perfect time frame for us this year.
The downside to early release days is that, buses follow their regular schedule and don’t pick students up early. When I heard the news I was pretty bummed like everyone else, being a bus-rider myself. Then I realized something; this could actually benefit me and the rest of the bus riders. When I get home I tend to get distracted and end up wasting an hour I could have used to do homework. This scheduling will fix this for me and maybe fellow students. If I am forced to stay a little after school, I tend to use that time to do homework. With this scheduling I can do my homework at school and then do whatever I want when I get home. But If I don’t have homework not all is lost, some of my friends ride the bus so I can spend the 40 minutes talking with them instead. There are many different things to do at school with free time, thanks to our laptops I can access the Internet or try apps that are on my mac. There are so many things I can do in those 40 minutes, now I look forward to Wednesdays just like non-bus riders do.
Overall, I think this is a positive change for the school I think this will benefit every single student in the building. Last year there was too much Advisory time and we spent a lot of time doing homework or reading. Even though the buses can’t change their scheduling, the early release will still be beneficial. I think this little extra time at school will motivate students to get work done so when they get home they will have time to do other things. I hope this beneficial schedule change will be used all school year and for years beyond.