Michigan Superintendent proposes a longer school year
Students react to the idea of an extended year
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As many students struggle to find a sense of normalcy over this past year, many find it unsettling to hear about the possibility of an extended school year. On February 3, Michigan superintendent Michael Rice made a statement proposing the idea of extending the school year to make up for any lost learning time students may have missed due to the pandemic.
Although the proposal has been pushed off until the 2021-2022 school year, many students, like sophomore Jessica Rowe, still wanted to share their perspective on the topic.
“Students have already lost homecoming, prom, etc. and tell us that now we lose a portion of our summer,” Rowe said. “It would be devastating. School already creates a huge impact on students’ mental health and continuing it into the summer would potentially and most likely have an extremely negative affect on students’ mental health.”
Senior Ridaa Khan agrees with Rowe, and has what she thinks is a better option than extending the school year..
“I think a more logical option would be to invest in adjusting curriculum in case school has to go online again in the future or continue online,” Khan said. “Problems don’t get fixed by repeating the same thing but being flexible with the conditions at hand, with the safety and health (even mental health) coming first. I do not care about the state’s guidelines for how many hours a student has to be in class and I think my peers would agree.”
Khan goes on to say that students’ home is where many come to rest and recharge, and they shouldn’t have to do school and work there all together.
“I also know that there needs to be a rest from the perpetual state of doing school work from home, the environment we usually rest in,” Khan said. “If this extension is meant to be in seat then it wouldn’t be wise to talk about it in the first place considering the current pace of vaccinations to the public. Students need a real break.”
Although the conversation at the state level is up in the air, it’s clear many students feel strongly about how they plan to approach this.
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