Ninety Minutes. Ninety minutes is a long time, but spending it sitting in class feels longer. Schools expect students to stay focused and quiet throughout that entire class period, but don’t even provide them a break? Sitting down for up to eight hours a day, especially for underclassmen without off blocks, becomes more repetitive and more dreadful as the school year goes by. Without breaks and movement within classes, there is no mental reset. Schools may think limiting breaks is returning a positive effect in how classes get work done, but I guarantee you students disagree. With the nonstop learning, or at least that’s the idea, most aren’t willingly learning anymore. They are just there because they have to be.
Let’s be realistic, humans are not meant to simply concentrate the way teachers want them to for an hour and a half straight for a majority of the week. Specifically when teenagers come to a halfway point in their 90 minute classes, their attention span can start to drift, and they zone out. They stare at the clock waiting for the time to go by faster, scribble on their papers, and lots of the time, end up talking to their friends. Giving these worn out students even just one five minute break outside of class can allow them to get out their sociality to their friends and recharge their brain to come back into class and be able to work productively. This is not because students don’t care about learning, but due to the fact that they are human and they can get exhausted.
Schools everywhere love to highlight efficiency, but refuse to listen to what their students ask for. When students become mentally drained, they can’t absorb information with a full understanding anymore. Teachers keep teaching, and the knowledge isn’t received to its full potential. One short, meaningful, five minute break to talk to their classmates, stretch, or merely breathe, could help reset an entire room. Students would come back recharged and more willing to participate as they have been given that opportunity to reset.
Breaks go outside of helping improve students’ moods; they also matter to mental health. High school is stressful enough with the tests, grades, extracurriculars, social aspects, and the pressure to do all of it to the best of your abilities. Going to a class where most of what you end up doing is sitting down and doing your work only further adds to burnout. Students are constantly reminded to take care of themselves, so why don’t schools do something to help them out too? Allowing breaks during class would show that being a good student is something to strive for.
There is also the physical component. Can it even be healthy sitting for eight hours a day, is it like sitting is the new smoking? Plus has anyone ever told you that they find school chairs comfortable? Sitting during these ninety minute classes can lead to headaches, fatigue, bad posture, and even more. A short movement break outside of the classroom could minimize discomfort and truly support alertness and readiness. No one learns correctly when their body’s needs aren’t answered.
Want to know something that is quite frustrating too? Breaks are normal almost everywhere else, they are the usual. Many adults get breaks at work; they can grab coffee, walk around, and renew their focus. Unlike school, students know they are expected to continue as they are told to do, but if needing a break is something they just can’t have, school feels more like a duty rather than an experience to learn for their futures.
Awarding quick breaks during ninety minute classes doesn’t mean lower standards or wasted time. It would make learning more functional. Student’s aren’t asking to stop learning, they just need a moment to refresh. Maybe, the best way to get student’s attention is to let them take a break.
