Having four or three classes everyday can be seen as a positive thing; however, for student athletes, this is a struggle. San Domenico requires a minimum of at least nine Physical Education credits in order to graduate, which translates to a total of three different seasons of sports.
While doing a sport is fun, doing a sport sometimes requires leaving or missing class. However, the issue is not missing class, but that you are always missing the same class. This is why it is important to have a rotating schedule.
As someone who was a student athlete last year that had a rotating schedule, I can say it worked much better overall. I never missed the same class because our schedule was always rotating.
Junior Delaney Whaley, a three sport athlete, explained the struggles of always missing chemistry class.
“It is really hard always missing chemistry because I have to find a time to meet with my teacher which is already hard enough given how busy I am,” Whaley said.
Chemistry is academically challenging enough, therefore missing class often is difficult because we usually learn new concepts each class. If you miss one class you have already missed a major concept and are not able to move forward until you catch up. If you put off catching up then the work piles up overtime.
Junior Kathryn Brown, who also has chemistry as her last block and does two sports, expressed similar struggles.
“We have a lot of projects in class and so if you miss two classes in the same week everyone has finished the project by the time I even know where to begin,” Brown said.
Projects are essential to apply what you have learned so far in the unit. If you have missed a handful of classes you can’t even do the project without going over everything you missed, which takes more time away from other assignments you need to do.
Academic classes are hard to miss, but on the flip side, electives can be challenging to miss as well. For example, in dance class you learn a dance that you end up having to perform. In addition to learning the dance, there are constant changes being made and the only way you can know that is if you are in class.
However, if you are in a sport and have to leave or miss class, it is on you to find time to learn the new changes. Since dance has fewer students, there aren’t many students available to teach you what you missed. This ends up affecting the entire dance class because the teacher has to explain every step until the dancer is caught up.
Sophomore Sarah Gordon, who does a sport every season and plays club volleyball has explained how missing dance classes often has affected her.
“Playing a sport comes with the responsibility of finding time to complete my work; however, missing dance class is challenging, especially because our final performance is so soon,” Gordon said.
Although having office hours at the end of every other day, still having an actual class as the last block on alternate days for athletes is a big challenge. Missing class, especially when learning a new concept, is hard to catch up on.
Changing to a rotating schedule could help many student athletes as well as teachers from having to repeat multiple lessons.
