December 14, 2022
Flexible Instruction Time, otherwise known as FIT, is a 26 minute period where students sign up to go to any classes they may be struggling in for extra help. However, the majority of students do not use FIT in the way as intended, and rather use it as a social period. This time would be better spent redistributed into class time or cutting it out of the day completely.
FIT is a waste of time that could be spent learning does not benefit students in any way other than socialization. Friends meet in classrooms to catch up with each other, instead of working together on homework. It is a challenge to find FIT classrooms that are actually quiet working environments, but instead filled with groups of kids gossiping.
However, some may argue that they use FIT as a learning tool on a daily basis, whether it be to catch up on classwork or consult with a teacher. They may use it to finish homework assignments or read chapters for English.
While it may be beneficial to a select few on those grounds, most of the student body does not use it as such. Students plan which FIT to go to with friends, and go to classrooms with relaxed teachers who don’t mind that the students are not using the time as intended.
This is wasting both the students’ time and the teachers’ time. Teachers are focused on wrangling the students into order and being quiet, and the students are just falling further behind in their education and in their teachers’ eyes.
Nonetheless, those students who do use FIT could instead attend before or after school tutoring, instead of putting the entire school behind. They could also ask questions in class, rather than a 26 minute time period when they may only have a couple queries.
Many students could get more out of FIT if it was extended to a longer period of time. 26 minutes is far too short to make any sort of progress on classwork or ask questions, especially with 20+ students in a classroom with questions they need to ask the teacher too. In addition to this, having a longer time period would allow for friends to catch up and also complete missing work, rather than having to choose one or the other.
All in all, FIT is a waste of time that is really only used as a social time. Whether it be extended or trashed, both would be more beneficial to students than the 26 minutes currently allocated to this period.
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