By Jarrett Ourman
Following last year’s survey results, which showed frightening levels of stress and burnout amongst the student body at IHS, school administrators have deemed it necessary to bring a new schedule to the 2026-2027 school year. As students and teachers debate about which of the two possible schedules, snake or block, will prove most beneficial, the snake schedule clearly stands above. The strengths of this schedule rely on its familiarity to students as well as teachers, along with bringing enough change to help resolve the issues that last year’s survey showed.
Firstly, while the longer periods which are provided by the block schedule allow students for more continuous time in class for projects, labs, and discussions, these longer periods could easily result in increased boredom.
Hence, student engagement is best managed in shorter stints, which will keep attention relatively consistent while also offering minimal transitions. By slightly increasing our period lengths, we can extend the productive “in the zone” learning, which often gets cut short in our current system; however, unlike the block schedule, the periods will end before this attention fades.
Moreover, a critical benefit of this rotation is that no one class will be burdened by typical lulls in the day. For example, a tiring end of the day math class won’t consistently be burdened by the last period; rather, this burden will be shared amongst all classes.
Alice Kamin, a member of the committee that explored different school environments and their block schedules, found that the snake schedule allowed students to have longer, more interactive learning experiences while still changing things up.
“I feel like this is a good schedule we can use as it gives students different routines which are more interesting,” said Kamin when asked for her thoughts.
“These longer schedules also may seem boring, but it allows for more homework to be done in class along with more engaging learning experiences” she added.
Critics of the snake schedule will say that memorizing multiple schedules will prove daunting for teachers and students alike, yet when needed, high schoolers have already proven they can memorize similar patterns. Currently, freshmen will memorize the classification of living things; later in chemistry, students will track periodic trends. Here we would have to deal with a similar issue, though, if anything, it’ll prove easier since each schedule is just a shift up from the one the day previous. In worst-case scenarios, quickly checking the day’s schedule online will be all that’s required.
Ultimately, the snake schedule balances the needed change that the school must go through without bringing about unreasonable extremes. I strongly urge administrators to bring the reforms of the snake schedule to IHS next year.
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