<p>The staff at Frontier Middle School are planning to change the flex schedule. As opposed to allowing students with good grades to go to fun activities, each student will have a designated "home room" where they will spend flex. We think that that is a bad idea for several reasons. First of all, students are motivated to keep their grades up for the fun flex activities. If we discontinue flex time, the students will lose that motivation. Secondly, flex isn't always just fun and games. Orchestra students practice, kids finish homework assignments, some work on projects they know they won't have time to finish. Without flex, students won't have time to accomplish these necessary tasks, and bad grades will follow. Lastly, flex is used by students as a time to de-stress. With eight classes and extracurricular activities, workloads can pile up pretty high. Flex gives kids some free time to just relax. Whether it's watching a movie, playing basketball, dancing, or even just talking with friends, each student has their own favorite flex activity. Taking away those will result in a tenser environment in which students may feel overwhelmed. </p><p>We realize that you aren't just changing flex to make kids mad. Flex as we know it has its' own problems. Teachers can't handle the amount of kids going in and out of the rooms, and it isn't uncommon for someone who's scheduled to go to science to quietly slip into the chat room. However, there are better ways to handle this. </p>
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