The passing period is only five minutes at Central, as we know. The typical passing period in high school and in college is five to 10 minutes. Typically, the time is longer based on how big the school is. Some students and teachers find this to be decent, and others believe that the passing periods should be longer. However, there is still much discussion around the length of passing periods. Both sides have valid reasoning that deserve equal reflection.
There are many positive reasonings why students believe that a longer passing period would be helpful. Most schools have at least two to three floors, if not more, when trying to get from the bottom floor to the top it can be difficult with the stairs, slow walkers and more. According to information from the National Center for Education Statistics, around 85% of students have reported that the typical five-minute passing period is not long enough. Between 3.3% and 9.5% of students in grades K-12 are marked tardy to their classes.
National Center for Education statistics says that 5.3% of people in high school dropout, and the most common reasons are that students do not feel that they can keep up with schoolwork. The main one is the fact of being tardy, being tardy to class does not only affect the student who is late but also the students in the class. It is disrupting and will discourage that late student and other students because of the interruption and embarrassment. Being tardy can greatly affect the learning of the student and leads to dropping out.
“There are a lot of people and trying to get from the basement to the fourth floor is hard, there are slow walkers, and when I am going to the fourth floor, I do not have time to stop by the bathroom,” sophomore Loudmara Ulysse said.
Focusing on classes can be hard as well with the short passing periods. Students do not get time to stop and use the bathroom on the way or they get in trouble. If they do go when they get into class, they must wait for the 10-minute bell, and even after that some teachers do not allow students to go. Considering this, one would think teachers would understand students do not go during passing periods, but no. Some teachers still get frustrated and tell students to go before class.
It is very much mixed signals with teachers and those problems then lead to easier grudges against teachers, some students may even refuse to do their work because they feel they are not getting respect. While students and teachers may support longer passing periods, there are also potential drawbacks that are often overlooked.
School administration understands but also has fair opinions. “The five-minute passing period is a sweet spot for students to travel to class without making bad decisions. If there was a longer passing period students could take care of needs, but I am not saying passing periods should be longer,” Dean of Students Nathan TerBeest said.
Administration understands longer passing periods would be helpful for the students who do want to be in class on time and get their needs taken care of, but it is difficult to give that choice with many students choosing to do other things other than school and taking care of their needs. Many students try to skip or talk to friends or do other things in the bathroom during passing period, with extending the passing period time this would only allow for careless things to happen more often.
