As Cape Henry Collegiate has endured a new bell schedule this year, there are many different opinions about whether or not this change is good for our community. Change is hard, and becomes even harder when the change is made to an aspect that used to be so uniform for the Cape Henry community. The human brain is wired during the school year to do the same thing over and over again, and any factor that could change this messes up the routine. However, no matter how challenging it can be to go through change, it ultimately has some sort of positive result, no matter how small.
Since the schedule has drastically changed, many students are not super thrilled about it. They do not appreciate having their everyday routine, that they have been used to for years, changed. Paul Sawyer, an 11th grader, says that “There are too many days and options for one week. I never know what class is coming next and I really do not like anything about the new schedule.” Overall, this has been the reaction of the student body. The confusion is overruling any positives that the students may have. Taylor Bolden, a 12th grader, states that she “doesn’t like how we could have the same class for an entire week without having a day off.” This has been one of the biggest complaints, that students have class for six out of seven days instead of four out of five days during the week. By having more class time, there is an excessive amount of homework and it is becoming hard for the students to juggle. Morgan Jones, an 11th grader, says, “I feel like like I have way more homework than I used to, which is stressful, especially since I play a sport.” Students are becoming less and less open to this new change because of the fact that many aspects are weighing on them, such as more homework and less time do it.

While the students are feeling challenged, they are being pushed out of their comfort zone. Life in the comfort zone is simple, and one simply follows a routine and can predict what happens next. Change makes people more flexible and adaptable, and this is exactly what the CHC community has been challenged to do. The act of change can be positive, and it is all about the mindset when confronting change. Mrs. Leanne Self, Head of the English Department, says, “Time is spent much more efficiently than it used to be, not having advisory time at the end of the day and having office hours has given opportunities for real student help and work. My students feel it’s very challenging to balance homework, but overall it is a smooth opening of the school year.” The random acts of free time and not knowing how to spend it has been removed, leaving room for just explicitly doing school work.

Renee Bawcom, a 12th grader, has an open mind about change. She says, “I think that the new schedule has its benefits and its weaknesses, but nothing is perfect and an open mind about change really helps. I like that we have longer lunches and different classes at different times of the day, but that means that nobody also quite knows exactly what comes next.” By having an open mind and actually trying to adapt to a new schedule, she has been successful and does not hate the new change, like most students do.

In conclusion, most of the students are not too excited about the new schedule, but it is only the beginning of the year. With the old schedule, we had to get used to it, too. The new schedule will take some time to adjust to, as this is the new normal. Opinions of the new schedule will change as the school year goes on. While a significant amount of the student body want nothing to do with the new schedule, most of the faculty and those who have been positive about this new change leaned toward liking a lot of the parts of the schedule. There will always be positives and negatives of changing a schedule that everyone in a community was accustomed to, but the way change is handled determines a successful school year.