180 Days or 990 Hours?

The last day of school is long awaited by all students. Stressful assignments, early wake up calls, and lengthy lectures come to an end and fun-filled days begin. But, what if I were to tell you that this highly anticipated day could technically come around sooner than the typical one hundred eighty days? 

According to the New Hampshire Department of Education, 990 hours of instruction are required each school year for highschools. As this does not include the hours spent in the lunchroom or the five minute “passing period” between each class, we must subtract 1.08 hours of non instruction from the 7 hours spent in the building every day. This leaves us with 5.92 hours of classroom time per day. After multiplying this by the 180 days spent in school each year, we can quickly see that the 1,065.6 hours of instruction that EHS students receive each school year far outweighs the required 990 hours. 

So, why must we be required to undergo two school weeks more than what is mandated by the state of New Hampshire? Furthermore, why are we obligated to spend unnecessary school hours sitting through repetitive lectures if we have already mastered a skill? This leads us to a heated debate, which has come to the attention of many—especially since the era of online learning. This conversation, known as the “mastery versus seat-time” debate, examines the idea of schools basing instruction time on students’ mastery of a skill, and not requiring a one hundred eighty day long year. If SAU16 were to adopt this method, the school year, for many students, would decrease even more than the two unnecessary weeks. 

Though the end of the school year is rapidly approaching as it is, students of EHS could technically be out of school weeks earlier than what is currently planned. With these extra couple of weeks, students would be able to further exercise their social and creative skills, which are just as important as the skills learned in a classroom. All in all, shaving off the last handful of school days would not only decrease the number of hours spent in the classroom, but it would benefit the social, emotional, and creative skills of students.