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Dear Editor,
The modular schedule has been part of Lowell’s culture, and I applaud the committee who had the insight to develop a system to that provides flexibility for both the teachers and students, allowing them time to mentally and physically recharge between Mods.
Mods allow students to collaborate with other students and teachers during that free time. The students can utilize the time for bathroom breaks, snack breaks, and last minute study time. It gives students a time to utilize the school resources like the VICCI Center, Wellness Center, counselors, tutorial help and also time to rejuvenate themselves. Students tend to fall asleep and teachers get tired when long classes have no rest periods in between.
Mods also control the traffic congestion in the hallways, cafeteria, and bathrooms. And most important of all, mod system gives flexibility to accommodate more elective and AP classes which makes Lowell unique. Why can’t the mod schedule be modified so that each mod equals 15-minutes, and each class will be three Mods with a swing mod of 10 minutes?
It seems that the block schedule is more convenient for the administration and counselors so open arena will be eliminated, and students will not have choices of classes or teachers. That would be a shame, because the mod system has worked for over two generations during which time Lowell’s students have achieved academic excellence.
The choice of which form of scheduling to have at Lowell should be guided by what works best in the classrooms, motivates our teachers to teach, and inspires our students to learn. The modular schedule has been a major factor in Lowell’s ability to maintain the highest academic standards even in the toughest economic times, and retaining it is the right thing to do.
-Elaine Wong
Lowell Class of 1977 and parent |
