The Occurrence Vol. 5 Issue 3

he OCCURrENC

Bryant Junior HigH|October 2023|Vol 5 Issue 3

Design By Gabrielle Smith Masthead

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3 - Extended School Year, Extended Fun written by Bella Luper 5 - The Risks of Overscheduling written by Isabella Durfrey 7 - Snow in the South written by Emily Carden 9 - Chris Gabe Out of Retirement written by Alex Warton 11 - Screen Time and How it Hurts written by Xoe Hawkins 13 - For That Special Someone written by Bella Luper 15 - Footsteps to the Finish Line written by Leila Brown 17 - Extending the School Year written by Isabella Durfrey and Brayden Rowe 19 - Overscheduling: The Common Crisis written by Gabrielle Smith About the Cover This issue’s cover depicts the stress a student might experience when returning back from break.

Sickness is spreading right now, causing students to miss school and unnecessarily stress.

When they return, they are often swamped with make-up work which can lead to anxiety in our student body.

Cover photo by Erin Wright, Photography Editor

Publication Policy ------------------------We will not accept submissions containing the following: - Informally written letters - Letters over 175 words - Anonymous letters - Letters signed by a group - Letters containing sexist remarks - Letters containing homophobic remarks - Letters containing inappropriate remarks towards any religion - Letters rudely directed at a certain individual We will accept submissions containing the following: - Formally written letters - Letters 175 words and under - Letters signed by an individual - Letters that are not discriminatory in any way Please remember that not all letters will be chosen.

Thank you,

The Occurrence

Letter From The editor We’ve already rung in the new year, and we’ve even brought a new issue along with the new calendar year. School’s still going strong and classes for next year have been chosen.

This issue has less stories than previous ones, but the information is just as important. This time, we’ve coverd overscheduling, mental health, school calendar options, school events and more.

This is the final issue of the 2023/2024 school year, meaning summer break is right around the corner. Hang in there, guys, ‘cause we’re almost done!

Gabrielle Smith

facebook.com/bjhsmedia

02 Design By Gabrielle Smith

The Occurrence Co-Editor in Chief

Masthead

As a secondary school, many students at BJHS struggle with overscheduling and stress. Its a problem I’ve personally faced many times. I highly advise anyone struggling with it to take breaks.

instagram.com/bjhs_media @BryantJuniorHighMedia

News

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Design By Bella Luper

Extended SCHOOl Year EXTENDED CALENDER canceled, but that doesn’t mean people didn’t have their opinions story: Bella Luper The school district has put forward a new plan to parents, guardians and staff for the 2025-2026 school calendar.

The new plan states the year would be 178 total school days instead of the original 175 days. The added days would mean that snow days aren’t built in anymore and would have to cut into summer break.

“The calendar that we have now, the benefits outweigh the negatives. The extended [calendar], I worry that the positives don’t outweigh the negatives,” Jason Hay, principal, said The possible advantages for students include preventing burnout for both teachers and students, lesson learning loss during summer break, decreasing absences from teachers and students, and evenly distributed breaks.

If this new plan is approved, parents, guardians and students would need to consider child care options, adapting to new schedule changes, less opportunities for summer programs and jobs and out-of-school activities, sports and competitions that could cut into school breaks.

“I think I like what we’re doing now

Extended Fun

better because I worry our students who are in band, choir, athletics, and yearbook [being here longer and during breaks],” Hay said.

The extended school has allowed breaks throughout the school year to be increased by days. This would mean that the school would have five days for fall break and Thanksgiving.

Fifteen days for Christmas, ten days for Spring Break.

Summer break would be seven weeks long, meaning the school year would start in July.

EXTENDED

YEAR

SURVEY RESULTS

The district sent out a survey on January 8th asking parents if they are for extending the school calendar for 2025-2026.

57%

Parents who voted for the extended year calender

43%

Parents who voted for the current calendar plan

After the survey, the district has dismissed the extended school year calendar plan.

photo: Leila Brown

3 day weekend...fourever 4 DAY SCHOOL WEEK idea running through the minds in Bryant

04

a g r e e d , o t h e r s d e c i d e d against it.

“No, be c a us e teachers have enough time to get work done and the students would be overworked,” “Blackboard School Summer” licensed by Pixabay Content License A u s t i n longer school days, and we Wright, 8th, said. wouldn’t go into the summer.

If the four day week However, due to lack had been approved then we of support, the idea has would have the same amount since been turned down. of hours a week, which means

News

story: Brayden Rowe Recently the school board was looking into a school week that only had four days.

The survey sent out to staff resulted in 54% of them saying yes they supported the idea, 16% saying they were unsure, and 31% saying no.

For a more diverse opinion, we interviewed students and asked what they might think of the idea.

“I support the 4 day school week because I do not think there is enough productivity to justify 5 days,” Chase Buford, 8th, said.

While some might’ve

Design By Isabella Durfey

05 News

BAND

Choir

PREPS FOR

REGION EVENT

story: Alexis Holley The Band Assessment is March 7-8 2024.

All five bands attend.

“We are required to play 3 songs for 3 judges, in a region event. We can pick the march, but the other two songs we pick are from a required list at the state of Arkansas,” Stewart Wright, band director, said.

The process to get ready for the band assessment takes between eight and nine week. The school band is in the process of getting ready.

“We do a fundamental block the first part of class, and all those fundamentals apply to the songs, and for the last part of class we rehearse the songs,” Wright said.

Wright believes the bands will do well.

Amery Felton, freshman, said,“I feel pretty ready, honestly I haven’t thought much about it. I’m excited to perform, I really like the songs this year. I’m pretty confident that we’ll do well, we got first division last year, so I’m sure we can this year!”

Conditions Want to join choir? story: Taylor Blake Aspiring choir students have a few things to do before joining the musical atmosphere.

“I want choir to be a fun, safe place,” said Jordan Murdock, choir director.

Anyone, regardless of prior experience, is welcome in the program! In class you will work on technique and learning to read music more fluently as well as other activities.

“We’re doing technique every single day too but I can do that at any point in time with anybody’s vocal development,” said Murdock.

Anyone can learn, however it does help you get started if you know the basics of reading music.

There are multiple classes you could be in if you joined choir. There are more advanced classes are the select choirs that require auditions to enter.

“They have to learn a

piece of a song, depending on how well they do, learning that music tells me if they have the drive to learn music independently,” said Murdock.

However, there are non-audition choirs as well.

They are all doing a choral performance assessment soon. They will preform a few songs and then get judged on the performance.

The expectations are the same for behavior in all of the classes. Overall, choir is good if you enjoy making music and having fun with others.

“I want to make musical memories,” said Murdock.

“It’s no lower, like we make great music in there.

It’s just there are so many kids in choir you wanna make sure they’re at an appropriate level for them and their being successful wherever they are,” said Murdock.

BRYANT GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS • • •

To graduate high school you have to get a total of 23 credits. Four from English that you get in your four years of high school.

Four math that you can start getting in 8th grade by taking honors classes and then you will be done with your four after your 11th grade year.

Three science credits that you can also start getting your 8th grade year by taking an honors course, and

THE RISKS OF OVERSCHEDULING What overscheduling does to a person

• •

then you will be done after your 10th grade year.

• Three social studies that you get and will be done with after your 11th grade year.

• Half a physical education credit that you get from taking P.E. Half a credit for taking Health with CPR. Half an Oral Communication credit. A half credit from taking a fine art like band, choir,

it can be hard to notice when overscheduling has started to affect your mental health.

“Some of the signs that someone is over committed would be feelings of stress and overwhelm, lack of passion and interest for activities that we once found enjoyable, poor eating and sleeping habits, changed in mood and social interactions, and difficulty making decisions or managing daily tasks and expectations.” Sayws Kinley.

music, or art.

One computer science credit by taking a programming class.

Six career focused credits you can get from any elective classes. Lastly, a half credit for economy that you get from taking the economy class. story: Xoe Hawkins

06 Design By Isabella Durfey

•

time with friends and family. “activities are often very structured with little down time to converse and engage in meaningful conversation.” Says Kinley.

Meaning that even outside interests cannot guarantee any socialization between friends and make it impossible to spend time with family. This can cause a feeling of loneliness which can cause depression and more issues. Mental issues can severely affect a person’s behavior which can cause them to struggle with their education, work, and any outside interest they may have.

Which can result in everything they’ve worked for going down the drain.

“Over time, this stress can manifest as a depressed mood, feelings of failure, anxiety and worry about letting others down, and even physical illness (headaches, gastric issues, etc) as the pressure builds over time.” Says Kinley.

With a packed schedule

News

Overscheduling is pretty common among children and adults and can cause many problems. According to mental health professional Nicki Kinley, Overscheduling can impact a person’s mental health by decreasing sleep and causing less time for socializing. overscheduling can cause lack of sleep affects education, work, and outside interests, it can also affect a person’s behavior. lack of sleep can cause grades to go down and affect future career plans. it can cause poor performance during a part time job or a full time career. Not only does lack of sleep cause poor performance in education and work but can cause stress.

“The stress of having too many commitments often also leads to poor performance since our time, energy, and resources are divided between competing interests.” Says Kinley.

Having a packed schedule can make it hard to spend

Design By Emily Carden

07 feature

Snow in the South

climate change triggers intense seasons

story: Emily Carden

E

veryone loves getting a week off school to do absolutely nothing, however sometimes things like that come with a interesting turn of events.

For the week of January 15 through the 19, schools all across Arkansas were shut down due to some unprecedented wintry precipitation. Arkansas as a whole usually only gets four inches of snow per year spread out over December, Janruary and February, but the state saw more than that

in a week. Some towns like Marshall received seven and a half inches of snow, while Central Arkasnas saw an average of three inches.

Skot Covert, who is a part of the THV 11 meteorologist news team is an expert on global warming along with something called the polar vortex.

“The polar vortex,” Covert, a three-time Emmy winner said, “is a large area of low pressure in the poles.

Polar vortex’s are known for their cold temperatures.”

“They aren’t anything new, rather, more people have

become familiar with them in recent years.”

So what does the polar vortex have to do with us if it’s in the poles?

“The vortex ‘wobbles’, especially in the winter months, and wobbles in a way that pushes a bunch of cold air further south into the U.S. This often results in unusually cold temperatures and more intense winter systems,” Skot explained.

This led to more questions of how this might be affecting the local area of town.

“One impact is on our

art: Alex Wharton

“Reducing carbon emissions is

something that everyone will have to do to see any progress.”

08 Design By Emily carden

believe we “Our roads can slow climate are full of change, and potholes right possibly reverse the now, largely effects, due to the though it’ll likely take freezing cold a very long time.” The temperature [,..] professional because our goes on to explain why infrastructure this might wasn’t designed take quite a while for such to undo, especially prolonged without and frequent any major changes of periods of cold our society. air,” “We have to curb addressed quickly if we wish carbon emissions and need to to make any progress on the do it very quickly,” he said, issue.

“These carbon Covert said that the emissions are weakening evidence points towards the ozone layer. When this global warming, but if happens more of the suns acted upon quickly, can be rays penetrate the Earth potentially resolved. and warm us up too much.

Reducing carbon emissions is something that everyone will have to do to see any progress.”

This is not just a local concern, but a international affair that needs to be

Feature

infrastructure. Our roads are full of potholes right now, largely due to the freezing cold temperature, and numerous people dealt with frozen pipes simply because our infrastructure wasn’t designed for such prolonged and frequent periods of cold air,” Covert said.

And for the million dollar question, why might this “wobbling” polar vortex be happening?

“While the polar vortex isn’t new” Covert said, “and ‘shifts’ or ‘wobbles’ is common, global warming is likely contributing to it happening more often and worse. As Earth’s temperatures continue to warm, our weather patterns are becoming less stable, which allows these ‘shifts’ or ‘wobbles’ to occur more frequently.”

Covert continued, “Some scientists would argue that not only are these occurrences happening more frequently, but more severe as well.”

With all of this given information collected, people are left wondering if there might be anything we can do to reverse the effects of how or why this is all going on.

“Most leading experts

Design By Taylor Blake

09 feature

BACK INTO THE FRAY Former Bethel Middle principal comes out of retirement to teach math class

story: Alex Wharton & Taylor Blake

C

hris Gabe retired as principal at Bethel Middle School at the end of the school year in 2023.

He retired because being the principal at a middle school was very stressful for him and was not a healthy choice in the long-term.

“Being a principal can be very stressful and it had started impacting my health.”

Chris Gabe, former Bethel Middle principal, said.

Now, he’s come out of said retirement to teach math for a semester here at Bryant Junior High.

Jason Hay needed a favor, and I missed teaching,” Gabe said, “so I decided to come to the junior high.”

Gabe claims he’s very impressed with the student here.

“I was always amazed at the different talents that so many of the students here in Bryant have,” Gabe said.

One of the things he missed most about the profession was being around students.

He says they “keep him young.”

He’d started teaching in 2009 as a science teacher at Bethel Middle School.

However, before that, he was a teacher and girls basketball coach at a few different schools.

At Bethel he taught for 5 years before moving to vice principle where he stayed

for two years before moving up to become principle. He stayed there eight years.

“I guess it just wasn’t time yet,” Gabe said.

He enjoys teaching and in his math class he models the skills they will be working on before having the class practice the skills.

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lifestyles

Movie previews for 2024

Mean Girls Remake of the classic teen

Plastics’, but whenever she makes the mistake of falling for the Queen of the school Regina George’s ex-boyfriend things begin

to change. The cast consists of Reneé Rapp, Christopher Briney, Angourie Rice, and Tina Fey.

Inside Out 2 Returning for a second

as new emotions are being introduced. With returning cast members Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, and

Lewis Black along with new cast members Maya Hawke, Tony Hale, and Liza Lapira.

Kung Fu Panda 4 Coming back for his

over himself, healing his scars and finding inner peace, Jack Black comes back to play the dragon warrior Po as he must find a new worthy being to takes his place

as he takes the next step for become the spiritual leader of a valley of peace while fighting next opponent “The Chameleon” voiced by Lucy Liu.

The Garfield Movie The Monday hating cat

door adventure when reunited with his long lost father. The cast of the movie consist of

people like Chris Pratt, Samuel L. Jackson, and Nicholas Hoult making this movie a must see.

movie, Mean Girls covers the story of new kid Cady Heron joining the elite group referred to as ‘The

film, Inside Out Two, follows the life of Riley through her teenage years

fourth time after the long journey of defeating kung fu masters, vengeful conquerors, and undead spirits warrior, as well as coming

11

Design By Brayden Rowe

now Showing

the world has grown to love is unexpectantly pulled into a crazy out-

If In the new John Krasinski movie “If” short for “imaginary friends” the story follows a young girl who discovers that

“I am super excited for ‘Kung Fu Panda 4.’ I aboslutley love the ‘Kung Fu Panda’ series and it has some the best animated villians ever. I am also a huge fan of Jack Black,” Keller Hilt, 8, said when asked which movie he was most exited to see.

“I’m not excited to see any of the movie that are coming out soon. The cinema nowadays has

she has abilities to see everyone’s imaginary friends. Now she takes off on a magical adventure to try to help the

forgotten imaginary friends to reconnect with their kids.

been expeiriencing a decline because the bar for a good movie is getting lower and lower. Disney is also buying out all the movie makers and they know that no one will challenge them to make better movies,” Gavin Mcmanigal, 8, said when asked why he wasn’t excited to see any of the new movies.

has been forever since the last one came out.

I’m also really excited to see what new emotions there are and what adventures Riley may have. If I had a second pick it would be ‘Kung Fu Panda 4’ because Po is really funny and the whole franchise is funny,” Brayden Rowe, 8, said when asked his opinion.

“I’m most excited to see ‘Inside Out 2’ because it

story: Nate Barnes

Screen Time How excessive screen time affects adolecence

and How it Hurts need.

Design By Brayden Rowe

photo: Bella Luper

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CNN Health states that if parents focus on a screen, then their child can be deprived of the face to face time that they

Lifestyles

This may end up causing behavioral issues with the story: Xoe Hawkins child as they move into school.

Growing up there are When children have many different things that affect unlimited access to screens, it kids as they develop, such as can cause a variety of issues their environment to the televifor the child in addition to besion that they watch. havior problems.

How much time a child “Children with unregspends on a screen and what ulated screen time can have they are watching can influence delayed speech, decreased kids as they are growing. vocabulary, decreased motor According to Arkansas skills- leading to decreased Better Beginnings, the most ability to play sports, and less important years in the most im- emotional maturity and skills portant years in a child’s brain to focus to handle stressors.” development is from birth until McVay said. they are about five.

When kids do have As kids are developing, screen time, it is recommended screen time habits can cause that they watch educational bad habits that can be harder content to break when they are older.

“I don’t recommend things “The recommendation that are violent or have a lot of is less than 2 hours a day of screen time for children and teenagers. More than 2 hours has been associated with obesity, trouble sleeping, increased depression, altering and thinning the cortex of the brain.”

Charissa McVay, ARPN, said.

When infants have access to screen time it can be distracting to them - even if they are not directly paying attention to it.

cussing.” McVay said.

When kids are watching an informational show, the information going into their brains can help them to learn and develop as they are getting screen time.

This can keep them happy because they are getting their screens, but it’s also something that can help them to grow.

As kids are growing up, putting them on screens may seem like an easy fix when they are upset, but the reality is that it may end up causing much worse issues for the kid.

Valentine’s Day is approaching!

There’s nothing like seeing someone’s

Lifestyles

face light up when you give them a gift. If you are struggling to find a

gift for a loved one, here’s a few ideas.

Great gift ideas for this Valentine’s day for those you love

Homemade Gifts

$5-$25 Gift Ideas

$30-$40 Gift Idea

Paper flowers can be a great gift since they can last forever.

$9.97-Hershey’s Hugs and Kisses Chocolate https://a.co/d/6VANe2O

Rose guide by Ashley Poskinhttps://www.apartmenttherapy.com/how-to-make-paperflowers-the-easy-way

$11.99- Personalized Initial Bracelet from MONOZO https://a.co/d/d9iGRpB

$31.75-Personalized Initial Necklace from Belky Mood https://www.etsy.com/ listing/706792888/personalized-name-necklace-initial

$22-LittleCandlesCo Love Potion Candle *Limited Edition*

$39.99- Floral Harmony Bouquet from Avas Flowers

Arrow guide- https:// asubtlerevelry.com/candy-arrows/

https://shoplittlecandleco. com/collections/limited-edition-valentines-candle/products/love-potion

https://www.avasflowers. net/product/rose-and-carnation-mixed-bouquet

“I really like to get flowers but I don’t want roses. I love ranunculus or peonies,” Morgan Cornelous, English teacher, said.

“Depends on who [i’m buying a gift for], probably up to $50,” Alex Wharton, 8, said.

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Design By Brayden Rowe

For That special someone

A fun craft that will share love (and candy) is candy arrows.

“[My favorite part of Valentine’s Day is] love.

Not necessarily romantic love, but showing it for others like your mom or your friends.

I just think it’s sweet.” Jasmine Johnson, cheer coach, said. story: Bella Luper art: Gabrielle Smith

RUNNING to the finishline: Tra

sports

15 Design By Alexis Holley

Averi Anderson, 8 Blue girls track team:

Averi Anderson is excited about the upcoming Track season. Although she’s never been on a track team before she’s confident in her athletic abilities. Averi is hardworking and plans to put in a lot of effort during practice and events hoping to finish first in all the meets.

Running is important to her and she enjoys doing it with her friends. To motivate herself she plans to listen to music. Averi is excited to see what the Track season holds for her as sports are an important part of her identity.

“I get tired if I’m not conditioned and I’m confident I guess?”

Jacoby Johnson, 8 White boys track team: Jacoby Johnson is confident in the team's performance for this season and believes they will win. He was on the track team last year and is eager to improve both physically and mentally. His strengths are his speed and intelligence and he's energetic and determined. He credits his success to his family and friends and watches inspirational videos to motivate himself. " If you think about giving up you let someone else win and I'm a winner," he said.

Hadley Ghere, 8 White girl track team: Hadley Ghere is kind of anxious for the upcoming season but at the same time thrilled to be a part of the team. She’s determined to throw more and overcome her difficulty running long distances.

She likes painting and outdoor activities like hiking and has more of a Western country preference.

She has no interest in popularity. Hadley is talented and eager to achieve her goals and enjoy herself this season.

“It doesn’t matter about winning or losing.

It’s all about having fun and practicing.” story: Leila Brown

rack TEAM DISCUSSES SEASON Trent Moore, Freshman boys track team:

Presley McNab, 8 Blue girls track team:

Presley McNab won’t be able to run this season because of her injury which is sad because of how talented she is. Even still, she’s still really dedicated to the team and is helping manage it. She is determined it is evident when she pushes herself far even too far at times. She enjoys the competition and the socialization.

“I always push myself to do better and better each time”

Design By Xoe Hawkins

Samuel Forte is excited and ready for the track season. He’s strong and confident and believes Track will assist him in getting into shape for football. He plans to run a lot and listen to music for motivation.

“I’m excited about it”

16

Samuel Forte, Freshman boys track team:

sports

Trent Moore is confident and ready to return to the track. He’s won four 1st place awards before and he’s aiming for five. “I like competition and getting to know new people at every track meet.”

He’s very talented and well equipped for the competition and describes himself as thoughtful and kind.

He wants to make his parents proud and is ready to impress his peers. “I’m fast, a weakness I have is probably working with people that I don’t know very well.”

Extending the

opinion

17 Design By Xoe hawkins

All the cons of changing the calendar story: Brayden Rowe The school board was exploring the idea of an extended school year calendar for 2025-2026. The board unfortunately decided to not implement the extended year due to a lack of support.

If we had the extended calendar then we would have the same number of days and a shorter summer break. The breaks we have during the year would be more frequent and longer.

The calendar used is old and designed for farming families to be able to have time to harvest crops with children’s help, but the majority of students aren’t using the summer to harvest anymore.

According to a Duke University study, the year round schedule leads to less academic

learning loss putting the students at an advantage.

According to a study run by Virginia, the year round calendar helps students at an economic disadvantage.

Some are opposed to it because we lose part of summer, but in Arkansas it’s really hot during the summer and you can’t enjoy the outdoors anyways.

Also you would still have seven weeks to go on vacations and summer camps instead of the usual twelve.

Students and staff would also come back more refreshed and less bored of school like many become in the long period between breaks. We would be able to get more rest and be able to have time to relax on breaks.

“The use of a balanced calendar could help to prevent

staff burnout by providing more frequent breaks for staff,” said the Congressional Research Service on yearround school.

People are also opposed to this idea because extracurriculars would lose some of their break to practices and training, but you aren’t required to be in the extracurriculars. When you join an extracurricular you agree to use free time for it.

In short, an extended school year would be helpful and a step in the right direction for our school district

art: Gabrielle Smith

scHOOL year All the pros of changing the calendar salaries which wouldn’t be fair considering teachers would have to work longer hours.

A regular school year is so much better because students focus better with shorter school hours, meaning extending the school year could be hard on students that struggle focusing during school.

A regular school year also means more time for extracurricular activities, socialization opportunities in general, and more time during the summer for vacation time with the family.

Overall extending the school year might fix little problems but could cause other major problems for students, parents, and possibly the school themselves.

18 Design By Xoe hawkins

wouldn’t have solved that problem.

Students who live in a low income household may work a job to help out their family or to help pay for their own things. But with the longer hours and a 4 day school week keeping a job isn’t very easy.

Even though the school changed its schedule doesn’t mean other businesses and jobs will do the same. A student would then have to choose to lose their job which means they would end up struggling even more at home with money.

Some extracurricular activities require money at some point for certain things and if a student can’t make the money to pay, they would have to quit the extracurricular.

This could affect their college résumé, making it harder to get into a good college.

An extended school year can also be expensive for the school. They would have to maintain the school building for longer and that can cost some money.

They would also have to do some funding to raise teachers salaries, unless they decide to extend the school year without raising teacher’s

opinion

story: Isabella Durfey By now it has been revealed that we will not have an extended school year, however, it did have parents and students speculating about the big changes the extended school year could cause. This calendar can cause problems like over scheduling, less time for outside interests, student burnout, and money problems.

If a student that works a job or is a part of any extracurricular activity, can be heavily impacted by the four day week. This will cause a student to be over scheduled.

One of the reasons schools consider extending the school year is to help students do better with work, by helping them maintain focus on everything they’ve learned over the school year.

But how would students do better at focusing on and remembering anything they’ve learned when they have a packed schedule.

This could cause kids to struggle with school work along with their job and extracurricular activity, leading everything they worked hard on to go down the drain.

This means scores wouldn’t improve and extending the school year

Opinion

19

Design By Xoe Hawkins

Editorial

OverscHEDULINg

art: Nate Barnes

story: Gabrielle Smith

Students have an ample amount of work to complete during their time in high school.

This load often spills over the allotted 387.5 hours a week spent on campus, leaving less time for selfcare.

In a study by Brandye D. Nobiling, a sample of 882 children ages 9 to 13 were asked to answer questionnaires on their perspective of overscheduling and stress levels.

Results found that “the single greatest predictor of activityrelated stress was the reported number of

Common problem among high school students

hours spent on work.”

This stress is known as burnout, and is commonly caused by overscheduling.

Overscheduling is a common issue where someone schedules too many events, work or activities - and it’s been getting worse.

In a 2007 article, Shari Melman claims “the past 20 to 30 years has seen an increase in the time children and adolescents spend in structured activities outside of the regular school day”.

This dilemma is something many students struggle with.

According to the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), states that “excessive workloads, crammed schedules, and perfectionism are causing teens undue stress”.

The ASCD suggests students to rethink their schedule choices and to coordinate their workload across their classes to reduce burnout and avoid overworking themselves.

Students can take less advanced classes, for example, or limit their extracurriculars.

PHOTOGRAPHY

photo: Michelle McClinton

photo: JD Olson

Adyson Lau and Gavin Colvert watch the Legacy Marching Band perform at the football stadium on October 18. The students were invited to go watch the competition band perform as a preview of what they could possibly be apart of in high school.

photo: Erin Wright

James Otwell, 8, experiments with a set of liquids and puts one into the fire to alter the color. This lab happened in Bo Lee’s class on August 28.

photo: Amery Felton

Mikaelyon Peoples, freshman, is chasing the action of the game, ready to win against the Parkview team. This home game was on August 31 and brought home another win for

photo: Sami Taylor

20 Design By Xoe Hawkins

At the Bryant Junior High gym against Cabot, Tara Knoble and Brooklyn Fischer, freshman, attempt to block a ball from entering the hornets own half.

Although not blocking the ball, the hornets hammered the ball back over that secured the point.

PhotogrAPHY

Iyanna Roth, 8, and the 8th white cheer team is stunting Roth’s little sister, Lyric, on the sidelines of a game. This was the first football game of the season on August 30.