At the beginning of the year, we as students, found out that four Tuesdays this year will end at 1:45 p.m, the traditional end time for Mondays, on weeks that we have Monday off for holidays. The time taken off from those particular Tuesdays will give our teachers more collaboration time to get things ready for the rest of the week.

Despite the frequent complaints students have of being overloaded with homework, I can say teachers oftentimes have exactly the same issue.

I have heard my teachers say they “have homework just like us” and they “have been slaving away just like us,” so, in my opinion, the change should help to rectify this.

Now, as a student, I agree that my teacher should have more time to get ready for their classes. I want to know that my teacher is prepared with developed lesson plans and knows what they are doing.

Therefore, this policy could not have come at a better time. I feel that most students agree with me, and share this “that is fine with me” philosophy, if only because they want to get out of school an hour earlier.

All and all, collaboration Tuesdays appear – At first sight – to be a rather positive change, with few negative qualities.

However, there are hidden downsides to the instigation of this policy. In addition to having collaboration Tuesdays, seniors (such as myself) will have to show up to school at 7:40 a.m. on the days that the sophomores and juniors have their testing, rather than coming in at 9:45 a.m. like seniors have in previous years.

Now, as a senior, I believe I have earned my fair share of vacation time. I trudged through the last two years of high school anticipating going to school at 9:45 a.m. and longing to have bragging rights on the unfortunate testers. We had a taste of it as freshman, but that only makes us want it that much more. Something is clearly wrong here.

From the buzz around the students – mostly the seniors – they would rather have regular Tuesdays and sleep in on the testing days than adhere to the new policy.

These students feel like they have been deceived in a way – and personally, I completely understand.

It seems like it is always the class of 2018 that gets the bad end of things, especially with this change coming around the same year that we become seniors. But, hey, that’s none of my business.

At this point, there is nothing to do but pout about it. However, I know that my first thought upon being forced to wake early during testing will be a sound series of curses – and more importantly, I know that the rest of my fellow seniors will feel the same.