The Chicken Pot Pie Project: Let’s change this ridiculous schedule

Tanian Schuttler, Editorialist

Schedules are squashing pot pies! 

This school year has been a jumble. I have not been able to figure out what times I am going to which classes and which days consist of which periods. 

Quite honestly, Mondays are incredibly difficult to navigate. It is the only day of the week that students are required to attend all eight classes in one day. 

Here’s a recent story for you:  On Tuesdays and Thursdays, my last class before lunch is 3rd period Newspaper. Naturally, on Monday, I assumed that that was my last period before lunch as well. Unfortunately, that was not the case. 

On Mondays, my last period before lunch is 4th period Baking and Pastry. The schedule is so discombobulated that I forgot I had to go to 4th period before lunch! So, after 3rd, I headed over to my favorite teacher’s room to get set up for lunch and heat up my delicious chicken pot pie.

Nobody said anything to me or gave me a weird look to signal that I was completely in the wrong place. I think it’s because they were in the same boat as I was… Not knowing where and when to go to lunch! As I started the timer on my chicken pot pie, I realized… wait for it… nobody else was eating lunch. I had made a mistake. 

I immediately hopped on the phone with my friend to share the hilarity that had become my 4th period and I asked her what I should do. She didn’t know what to say or even how to speak over the laughter that was flooding the phone speaker. 

I concluded that I was going to stop the pot pie timer and leave it in there until it was actually lunchtime. Seriously, I only had to wait a half hour before class was over (another crazy schedule quirk) so I figured it would be fine. I mean, it was barely even cooked. 

I left and when class was finished, my chicken pot pie was still in the microwave waiting for me to come back and retrieve it. All in all, things worked out in the end. Except for the fact that I can almost guarantee I am not the only student (or teacher) who has gotten the schedule confused this school year. 

I’d like to think I am fully capable of staying on track and getting to class on time. But when Mondays are a late-start schedule and we attend all eight periods, it can get confusing! 

I’m going to start calling the effort to rid the building of this insane schedule the “Chicken Pot Pie Project.”  School schedules should not be complicated and good kids shouldn’t be warming up their lunches during passing periods out of sheer confusion.  Let’s change the school schedule and help keep students better organized and – most importantly – prevent the wasting of precious chicken pot pies.