By now, everyone now knows what FIT is and how it’s supposed to benefit us. In advisory, we learned study tips to make the time useful, basic information and background, and how each week Social and Emotional Learning will be discussed.

With the many pros FIT seems to have, there are still some cons that need to be addressed and solved. To start, 25 minutes really isn’t long enough. By the time you actually get to your designated FIT classroom, get out all your work, and get into a good flow, you would have less than 15 minutes left. You also have to factor in the time it takes to pack up all the supplies you got out, and the time it takes to get to your next class. I know I was stressed out the whole time working in my FIT class because I was worried I wasn’t going to have enough time to finish what I had been working on, or make any progress on it at all. Adding more time to FIT seemed like a good idea, but where would it come from? There isn’t a whole lot of wiggle room, and adding time to the school day wouldn’t be ideal because the 4:30 release time is causing problems of its own. Taking time from lunch isn’t an option either because it is probably as short as it can get.

FIT isn’t worth losing the 20 or so minutes off of lunch. We already have access to the tutoring center in the mornings beginning at 7:45 and in the afternoons ending at 6:30. Each of our teachers have specific tutoring times that we can utilize. Lunch also allowed time to turn in time sensitive homework or assignments, but with this new FIT time, lunch no longer gives us enough time to do the things we used to be able to do. FIT doesn’t allow us to go around to our different teachers and turn in those urgent assignments or ask questions. When you go now during lunch to turn something in or ask a question, the teachers either aren’t there, or don’t have enough time to help you because they are also trying to eat their lunch quickly and get work done in the small 40 minutes of time allotted.

School ending later has become a problem for students and teachers who live far away or for students who have to travel through roads with heavy traffic. Even though school just ends 15 minutes later, traffic gets a whole lot worse. Driving towards the end of the day when more people are on the road can be stressful, especially for new drivers, and causes more accidents. For other schools, the severity of this issue may not be as prevalent as it is here because Austin High is closer to downtown than other high schools, and students come from all over Austin.

Most course descriptions state that homework will take no less than 30 minutes to complete. For many students, especially upperclassmen who are taking AP courses, a lot of extra pressures are developing for them this year. Homework loads are greater, and time to get them done dwindles. If FIT was designed as a study hall to get work done, the amount of time allotted for it should have been considered a bit more, or been given more allotted time.