All right, I’ll say what everyone is thinking: The Spartan Day is pointless and we should get rid of it.

To begin, there is nothing that can truly be accomplished in a 44 minute class. Once students and teachers are settled, there is hardly any time left for learning.

Let’s think about this realistically.

Not every student will arrive to class on time. No matter how generous the five-minute passing period, there is always one student who lags behind because they have to trek from the basement to the third floor.

By the time every student is in the classroom, the teacher still has to take attendance, wasting another minute or two. Already four minutes are gone from the already short class period.

When all of the students are situated and the teacher is ready to begin the lesson, there are only 40 minutes left in the class.

And 40 minutes leaves absolutely no time to teach students new subject matter, discuss anything in-depth, or even conduct a decent review of old subject matter.

This is not to mention that science labs, art and music classes require a setup and breakdown of materials and instruments.

The general argument is that Spartan Days make sure that students see their teachers after the weekend to either receive or correct homework for the weekend, but 30-40 minutes—or even the whole 44 minute period—is not enough time to correct and answer any questions students may have.

Yes, it is nice to prevent students from missing classes for three days in a row with the staggered block schedule, but the real concern should be with productivity. And Spartan Days are a waste of time that could be better used in a longer class period.

Green and White Days allow for a productive school environment so that every student gets the the most out of class time.

This year alone, we will lose 271 school hours to Spartan Days. All of which could be better spent with longer and more involved classes.