“High school is crazy. I wake up at like 7 a.m. Then I rush to get my stuff together and get to school. Once I’m there it seems like it goes on forever before there’s a break. By the end of the school day, I feel pretty tired. But if I had a little break or some time to do my own thing, I think I could do better in and out of school.”
So said high school senior and Youth Radio reporter Eli Arbreton in a special report broadcast late last year by Youth Radio and National Public Radio. Arbetron went on to talk more about how stressful his school day was and then what he found out about how students in another school in Vermont were handling the typically frenetic schedule of an American high school student.
“In what adult work setting do we ask people to be totally on and engaged for eight to 10 hours straight,” said Adam Bunting, the principal of Montpelier High School in Montpelier, Vermont. “I don’t think adults would stand for it and I don’t think students should stand for it.”
So in 2013, Bunting took it upon himself to rearrange his high school’s entire schedule to incorporate a 15-minute break, or “recess,” for the students there.
Bunting said he wanted to give students that extra time to do whatever they wanted but still be somewhat productive: “to critically think, to read, to do whatever,” he said. “Something just different in the day, which is important.”
SRT for NDP
Now nearly two weeks into the new school year, students at Notre Dame Prep have found out that they, too, will have available special time for de-stressing and to be off the main grid for some special “schedule relief time.”
According to ND Prep Principal Fr. Joe Hindelang, s.m., schedule relief time, or SRT, will be student time that can be used to attend club meetings, do homework, attend a college presentation, do small group work, make a counselor appointment or any other things that oftentimes get pushed aside in a typical school day or week.
“Our goal is to make it student time during the school day that they control for themselves,” Hindelang said. “They can choose to join a club and participate in things where after school they may have less free time because of rides or sports. They can do homework, meet on a group project, meet with a Personal Project supervisor, ask a teacher to explain a problem, or just read a book.”
He said the students can also use the time for "homeroom-type” things such as distribute yearbooks or plan Irish Week, which in the past were always done in activity room sessions.
“It's new for us, so we think it likely will evolve and change as we go forward through the school year,” Hindelang added.
Hindelang plans to more fully explain the program to high school students next Tuesday, September 8, after the all-school Mass.
Comments or questions? mkelly@ndpma.org.
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About Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy
Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. The school's upper division enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame's middle and lower divisions enroll students in jr. kindergarten through grade eight. All three divisions are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." NDPMA is conducted by the Marist Fathers and Brothers and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy, visit the school's home page at www.ndpma.org.