The Gallery
protest block scheduling
souderton area high school - class of 2005. down with block scheduling.
before I break down this picture, I would like to explain its purpose. the term "block scheduling" means that students will have four 85-minute class periods each day rather than the standard eight periods for 40-some minutes.
this system is being instituted at my high school next year.
I would like to take a few moments now to look at the pros and cons of block scheduling. Please bear with me if you couldn't care less. If you just want to hear me rattle on about all the little tedious things in my drawing, click here and you'll be able to skip all this other stuff.
pros:
with periods twice as long as usual, schedules are different. core classes - math, science, english, social studies - only last for one semester. block scheduling offers four different types of ways classes can meet: every day for a semester, alternating days for a semester, every day for a quarter, alternating days for the full year.
the advantage of this is that we are able to get core classes over and done with in one semester. also gym or "physical education" (someone please tell me where the education is?) is not year long either. we are given the choice - a choice! - to take gym either every day for a quarter or alternating days for a semester. we get done with sadistic phys ed teachers quickly. ^_^
also, with extended periods teachers can get more done each day. now before i prove the con of this, let me explain. the more we get done in class, the less homework we are given. every day teachers complain that they need more time to finish their lessons, resulting in our homework. independent work, at home; our feeble sanctuaries. the only assignments that would (or should) be given for home are projects, essays, those sorts of things. we would even have time in class to work on those. hand in hand with that is longer testing periods. teachers follow basically the same tests and quizzes year after year. if they were made for a 40-mintue period, 85 minutes would give anyone enough time to finish unrushed.
students wouldn't have to stay after school as often for extra help; there would actually be enough time to explain everything thoroughly and not have to assume that blank looks mean absolute understanding. there is enough time.
but is there too much time........
cons:
think about it: 85 minutes. that's twice as long as anyone is used to. that means you're with your teacher twice as long, with the same people twice as long, sitting on hard plastic chairs for twice as long, learning the [nearly inevitable] boring crap for twice as long. it goes the same way for the teachers: twice as long with each and every one of their beloved students...... the fun can only last so long.
besides the obvious time problems with block scheduling, there are technical problems which were never figured out. some school board member was probably given this problem to work out, but after seeing it thought to himself, "ahh, screw it. let those stupid high schoolers figure it out. damn, i hate kids..."
i think the only way to see how frustrating this can actually be, you have to see the schedule they gave us to work with. each student has to earn the total number of credits needed to in order to graduate - the minimum each year is six and a half, and the max is eight. (i got seven this year.) the classes I'm taking next year are as follows: history (1 credit), english (1), biology (1), honors algebra II (1), spanish III (1), microsoft office [a fucking required course that i'll complain about soon] (1), phys ed [which is actually swimming class] (0.5), and band (0.5).
as you can see, there is a gap. for those of us who are only in band (or any other music group), we are left with a slot for a course that meets on alternating days for a semester. the problem? there are no classes to fill this slot that would hold the least amount of interest. good job buddies! if i may quickly quote Mark Twain: "god made the idiot for practice, and then he made the school board."
block scheduling doesn't exactly work for everyone, not without a hell of a lot of problems. eventually we decided we'd have to make our open slot a study hall. oh joy, a study hall.... for eighty-five minutes. to me that's the school district's way of saying, while holding up a giant banner sporting a grand middle finger: "screw you: revenge".
but no, that doesn't end it. the school board is made up entirely of sadistic bastards. this is off the subject of block scheduling, but it's annoying nontheless. to graduate we are required to take a course called Microsoft Office. basically a word processing/keyboarding class using four different programs - on PCs. fucking Windows. please scroll up and down your screen for a moment .......... i rest my case. (note: macs all the way)
i probably have many more arguments about block scheduling that I'm forgetting right now, but i think I'l stop here. as you can plainly see, I am extremely pissed off by this, along with, oh let's say, every other person at the freakin' school. but i must confess, the school district is not entirely to blame. they did not introduce block scheduling to souderton; the actually opposed it for some time. no, it was that god damned principal, a buck-tooth country hick, at the high school. she is a fuck. she moved here (pa) from somewhere out west in a district with block scheduling. she pushed and pushed and pushed until the board couldn't take it anymore. and now, because of their insolence and utter weakness, we have to suffer.
thank you Dr. Beerman, you stupid bitch.
this picture, even though made for protest, was fun to draw. I finally got to do some more anime! I even got to incorporate some difficult aspects: it took me forever to figure out how to cross the legs right.
the picture itself is an anime, which means almost anything goes. i was going for something simple and original, but was influenced by the wonderful art done by piro over at MegaTokyo. the uniform design is also that worn by the students in the MegaTokyo comics, so I take no credit for it. it's really a tribute and a show of my admiration of piro's work. he's awesome!~ ^_~ (i encourage you to check out his other work at Fredart. it's all very well done, despite anything he says.)
if you read my rant, then you understand why i added my flute (it's all part of the grand protest). the character is no one special, just some unidentified person who popped into my mind. i doubt she'll appear again.
finally, i apologize for my rant. I didn't mean for it to go one for so long. i'm also sorry for the tone it gave - i try to keep these pages light-hearted, but this is an extreme annoyance. i'm sorry. (Dr. Beerman=bitchbitchbitch)
--yami
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Creator: Yami
