10 Minute Break

Nick Ludka ’15

Opinion Writer

The 10 minute break, to some people, is no longer a break. Some teachers have completely taken the “break” out of the ten minute break. The idea came about after the school transitioned from eight classes a day to seven. The extra class that accounted for the eight was called “advisement”. This was a 20 minute class that allowed for teachers to schedule meetings and for students to catch up on homework. Occasionally, Channel 1 News would be shown to the students, a national broadcast tailored to high school students around the country. When Channel 1 News was discontinued at Nouvel, the advisement period lost a portion of its purpose. The twenty minutes of advisement was then divided amid the seven other hours. Advisement was removed yet there was a still a need for a break, and thus the ten minute break was born.

This ten minutes can be used to watch the video announcements, go down for assemblies, or to chill out before third hour. Here are the numbers for the teachers that use the 10 minute break to teach. They gain 40 minutes of class time every week. Averaging 10 minutes every day and about 140 days of actual schooling, those who teach through the ten minute break will teach for an extra 1,140 minutes, or an extra 24 hours a year: that’s a full day. 24 hours equates to about 29 class periods and 29 class periods is equivalent to a little more that 4 days of school. That’s almost a full week of school every year dedicated to one subject. These numbers would be convincing if the ten minutes was called “extra teaching time” but it’s not… its a break.

If it will not be used as a break, then why have the ten minutes there? School could end ten minutes earlier every day and a “ten minute break schedule” could be followed on the days where there will be a short assembly or video announcements has to be shown. This may be wishful thinking, but I believe that the ten minute break for most people is far from a break and needs revision.