EDITOR: The sign outside the school house at 80 West Central
Ave. states that one has arrived at Britton Middle School. In a
classic sense the sign is wrong. You have arrived at Britton Junior
High.
EDITOR:
The sign outside the school house at 80 West Central Ave. states that one has arrived at Britton Middle School. In a classic sense the sign is wrong. You have arrived at Britton Junior High. For the past 20 years Britton has been home for the ninth grade freshman class waiting for their chance to attend a four-year high school. In addition to freshmen, Britton is also home to seventh graders newly arrived from self-contained classes from various elementary schools and eighth graders.
When schools are structured with ninth graders, the state Education Code requires that students attend a minimum of 64,800 instructional minutes per year. This is the same for all high schools. When schools have their grades structured with just seventh and eighth, the code requirement is 54,000 minutes per year, about an hour less a day.
The point is, we have been requiring our youngest students to attend school on a high school schedule, with long days of classroom instruction that find many of our seventh and eighth graders tired, restless and inattentive before the last period of the day. In addition, students who participate in after-school sports often miss sixth period and sometimes half of fifth period in order to attend their sporting event.
As plans to restructure Britton and Murphy for the school year 2004-05 move forward, efforts are being made to restore the schedule of classes for our young students that will reflect the prescribed instructional minutes provided for in the Education Code (Ref. Ed. Code Section 46201, Paragraph 3c requires 54,000 instructional minutes per year.). Paragraph 5b makes applicable the rule of 1982, which for Britton and Murphy would mean the minimum instructional minutes would be 55,718 per academic year, 310 per day on average.
This schedule meets the learning requirements of seventh and eighth graders for several sound educational reasons:
• Our students are in transition from a self-contained elementary classroom to a departmental setting where there are increases in academic content, teacher contacts, longer homework assignments, longer school days, and after school activities. By 2:30 in the afternoon these growing and developing young learners show the signs of fatigue, hunger and stress. They won’t benefit from another hour of school.
• The 310-minute day of instructional time can be presented in six class periods of about 47 minutes each. The daily schedule can be structured so that lavatory and nutrition breaks occur after every two periods. After-school sports could actually be held after school. Students participating in after school activities would no longer miss class time during fifth and sixth periods.
• There is a need to see these young learners on a regular basis. They need routine. We need to see them to reinforce, review and remind them about the ideas and concepts presented in class. Human neurobiologists who study how the brain learns tell us to present our lessons in 20-minute units, transition to a student activity to reinforce the main points (another 20 minutes) and then five minutes to review the lesson with an activity substantially different from the original lesson. That’s about 47 minutes.
• What we have found to be the needs of our post-modern adolescents is authentic human interaction. They need teachers to be strong, competent and caring adults. They need teachers to be guides to engaging lessons. They need schools that put the focus on learning. They want discipline to be what the word means. They need a day that is effective and efficient, not just long and wearisome.
• The school that ends at about 2:30 gives middle school teachers time to collaborate on learning issues and other school concerns. The teachers at Britton and Murphy treat each other with a keen sense of mutual trust and respect. They find the time without limits to visit with each other and to do the work of collaboration.
Many teachers are found working on campus long after the 5 o’clock whistle blows. Many parents know full well the long days of teaching and planning that teachers work. We take our responsibilities seriously and professionally. The students and the community are well served and the taxpayers certainly do get their money’s worth.
The Board of Education of the Morgan Hill School District should direct their staff to adjust the instructional minutes for their middle schools to the prescribed minutes as stated in the Education Code. The school day will become less stressful, the schedule more humane and no one will be abandoned.
Jerry Stuefloten and others,
Britton Middle School
