As most high school students have at least one after-school commitment, it’s hard to find time to do school work, and relax.

At Pentucket, the school days are nearly seven hours. This gives teachers plenty of time to teach, and students plenty of time to learn, but is there enough time for homework and sports later in the day?

Pentucket Sophomore and two season athlete, Alyssa Demeule, claims that the school days are too long. Not only is she on the cross country and the basketball team, but she also plays AAU basketball year round.

Alyssa says that when she has basketball games in the winter (for Pentucket), she would go home for a little more than a half hour and get some homework done.  Then, she would have to come back to the school to catch the bus for her game. By the time she got back to the school from the game, it would be around 9:30 p.m.

Once she got home, it would be around 10:00 p.m., and she would still have at least an hour’s worth of homework to do before going to bed. Not only did she have to do homework, but she also needed to find time to shower, and eat dinner.

Sophomore Billy O’Neil, who plays sports year round, finds the length of the school days to be just right, as he says, “I mean, I’m fine with the length of the school days because it leaves me with enough time to go to practice, and then go home and do homework.”

Then there are the students who don’t play any sports after school, and have no problem with finding time for things like homework. Sophomore Andrew Clark, who doesn’t play sports, says, “The length of the school day is perfect as it is because it leaves you with enough time to do what you want after school.”

Just as students have several different opinions on the length of the school day, they also have different opinions regarding time in school opposed to vacation time.

Senior Jake Wildes says, “We definitely have enough time off. The school year’s pretty short which makes April vacation pointless since we’re already near the end of the year.”

Although it can be hard to balance school, sports, work, and relaxation time, it’s simply a skill that high school students need. Learning how to do this will make going out into the real world much easier. In the long run, the tight schedules prepare us for what’s to come.