A year ago, Edmond Public Schools (EPS) shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. When the school decided it was safe to return in August 2020, they put the students on an A-B schedule, with A-group students attending Monday and Tuesday, the B-group, Thursday and Friday and all students are virtual on Wednesdays. 

Now, entering into the last nine weeks of school, EPS has decided that students will be going four days a week, with Wednesdays still being virtual. This, in itself, will be very hard for the students as they will have to adjust everything from their sleep schedule to when they can go into work.

Since the students have only been seeing their teachers two days a week, all homework has been due on Sundays. This has helped students to either have instruction and then do their work or come to their teachers with their questions about that week’s assignments now that is not the case. 

For the most part, teachers have been giving assignments only on virtual days and doing instruction on in-person days, so how is this all going to change now that students will be in person for four days?

In order to answer some common questions asked about the change, Edmond Memorial sent out a document that answered many of them. One of the questions asked was if students’ assignments will still be due on Sundays. According to the document, students will have to turn in assignments whenever the teacher wants them (just like it was in previous school years).

The main problem with this however is that it is not a normal school year, students have become accustomed to a certain way of doing their work. So if all six or seven classes decide that each day’s homework will be due the next day, they will be doing the same amount of homework that they had during the A-B schedule, but with less time. If EPS stuck with the Sunday deadline students would be able to keep some normality while they completely change their routines from two days to four days.

This year is hard enough as it is, especially with changing the school schedule with only nine weeks left. If students could at least be able to keep an ounce of a routine with their homework, it would be much more beneficial to everyone.

Contact Adeline Gruen at [email protected]