After a year and half of learning virtually, we come back to South High trying to adjust to a normal year. However, how “normal” is this year so far? In addition to coming back full time, there was a new day added to the schedule. Purple days. A purple day is a day where you go to all of your classes minus Ac. Lab for 45 minutes each. It just gives me a flashback from middle school, spending 7 classes for 45 minutes each. However, purple days are just awful. They are confusing, a waste of time, and they just don’t make sense. 

When going through virtual learning last year, Parkway high schools moved to a quarter schedule where we had the same four classes for nine weeks. Now, that was a huge adjustment from going from a regular block schedule with an Ac. Lab to a quarter schedule with no Ac. Lab. We come back to the 2021-2022 school year returning back to the block schedule along with Ac. Lab but with a twist–Parkway decided to make another confusing schedule and add purple days. On purple days, which are usually every Monday, you visit all 7 classes on your schedule for only 45 minutes. To make things even more confusing and difficult, there is no Ac. Lab on purple days. 

Another reason why purple days are so bad is because they are a waste of time. Teachers only get 45 minutes to teach which is definitely not enough time but, on top of that, purple days just drag on through the whole day. Even teachers understand the useless nature of purple days because they don’t really “teach” us on those days. By the time teachers take attendance students only have maybe less than 40 minutes to do their work. It just repeats six more times during the day but instead of making the day go faster, it just drags on for an eternity. There are times where I sit in class and do assignments, then before I know it the bell rings. I don’t have enough time to finish even half of my work and then it’s assigned for homework which just loads up my homework even more. We are wasting a day where every other Monday could be a blue day where we have Ac. Lab and we can do our assignments and get help from teachers. Another weird addition to the schedule is during sixth block, they added a random study time for half an hour. What is the point of that? I know it’s very weird for me to be in Ms. Noyes’ 6th block class learning math, and all-of-a-sudden we stop learning math and it’s a study hall. Some teachers are ignoring the 30-minute study time, and just teaching through those minutes to make their class longer.

Lastly, purple days just don’t even make sense. Before the pandemic, the schedule altered between both blue and red days. Even on Mondays, there would be a red or blue day where you attended your four classes. Now, purple days are just a random day during the week added to make all of our lives more miserable. Short classes for only a short amount of time where you don’t have enough time to do your work and where teachers don’t even have enough time to teach, how does this make sense? We spend 45 minutes each class doing assignments that might end up being homework but then adjusting to a red and blue day schedule the rest of the week.

There are some positives to purple days. They do give you a chance to go to all your classes and catch up with your teachers and any assignments. It also gives you a chance to visit your classes three times a week, to obtain as much information from each subject as possible. Another positive thing is that you know that red days are on Tuesdays and Thursdays and blue days are on Wednesdays and Fridays so you don’t get confused on what day it is.

But overall, the negatives of purple days outweigh the positives. They are confusing, waste students’ and teachers’ time, and it doesn’t make sense. Most teachers and students don’t like these days and we just came back from hybrid learning and a difficult year because of COVID but now, Parkway made everything more complex by adding purple days. I think, and most of us would agree, that it would be easier to go back to a normal red and blue day schedule because it would be easier to balance out homework and people would have enough time to do their work. Teachers would have more time to teach classes if we had a normal red and blue schedule and adding this day, however, did not achieve any positives no matter what they could be.