Every year, prospective Andover students are told, by enthusiastic admissions officers, of the incredible opportunities just waiting to be pursued. They are told of the interesting, yet challenging classes taken by all students and the amazing facilities they will find on campus. But what is most pleasing for many potential students is the special environment that they can join, where they can pursue their interests at greater depth then they would be able to at other schools. Little are they warned that the time spent with mandatory academics and sports will leave them with minimal time to pursue much else. Although many students are excited to pursue their interests, they aren’t given enough time to follow such interests as deeply as they would hope. For almost all students at PA, their days are scheduled and structured from the minute that they wake up until the early morning when they collapse into bed. From 8 AM until about 3 PM, one spends his or her time in and out of class. Then, as required by the school, heads off to sports practice, a commitment that normally lasts until Commons begins to serve dinner. Finally, around 6 PM, students are finished with their mandatory academic and athletic commitments for the day; except, of course, for the piles of homework and studying assigned earlier that day. On average, Juniors and most Lowers are assigned fourty-five minutes of out of class work from each teacher, each day, which adds up to a hefty total of 225 minutes each evening, about 3 3?4 hours. This number, however, doesn’t even begin to compare with the loads assigned to students taking A.P. courses and specialized electives, which have more than the normal amount of homework a night. An Upper, taking the normal curriculum, would end the day with five hours of work ahead of them back at the dorm. Over all, on average, a student would spend more than four hours in class, one hour in commons, two hours at sports, and five hours of studying. This adds up to thirteen hours, leaving only eleven left for other non-mandatory activities (including sleeping). And of course, the above schedule does not leave much time for socializing, which for many takes up significant time. A long day, like the one described above, would leave even the most energetic of people, exhausted. Herein lies the problem, if the average student is left with only a few hours in the day to pursue extracurriculars such as clubs and community service, how is it that students find time not only to participate, but also to do the activities well. The important distinction here is that most students can attend a half an hour meeting once a week for a club, but whether the exhausted, strained student can actually participate to the best of their ability in a club is an entirely different story. The pitched version of Andover conveniently excludes how students can actually fit the myriad different things offered on campus into their already packed schedule. Andover also claims that other passions can continue to be pursued, but with only a few hours to pursue on campus activities, it is extremely rare to find a student who can actually manage to participate in an off campus activity. Especially at Andover, where the majority of students come with developed talents, it is crucial, not only for the student but for the school, that the student be able to maintain passions that are found outside of the walls of the fabled classroom buildings. In the current school environment the logistics prevent those enrolled at Andover from maintaining out of school passions. There are a variety of ways to fix this problem; unfortunately adding ten more days of school is not one of them. The most viable solution that the administration should consider when addressing this issue is to structure more time into the day for extracurricular activities. This can be done twofold: first, students who have an advisor approved off campus activity can be excused from a certain amount of work twice a month on Wednesdays in order to pursue other interest. Second, each regular class should have forty minutes of class time as opposed to forty-five minutes. This would allow for a day when sports would also start earlier and, therefore, many club meetings could take place before and after dinner to allow students with the opportunity to participate. Andover is a remarkable place to learn, but to meet extremely rigorous academic requirements, students are rarely left with enough time to pursue their other dreams. In order to live up to their promise, students should be able to pursue their interests in substantial depth on campus.
