What are the advantages of offering high school flex programs, and how do they benefit students? Flex is a huge discussion among the high schoolers and teachers at Portsmouth High School. I believe flex is put into place at the end of the day to offer students a chance to get their homework done and meet with teachers; however, I believe flex should be optional for all students. 

If you can maintain good grades I think you are responsible enough to leave campus for flex, especially if you have all of your work complete. If you have missing work and failing grades, you should have to flex into a class until you are passing.  

I have caught myself many times just sitting in flex and not having anything to do until I was a senior and could leave for flex. Getting rides is another problem I have faced, and if your ride isn’t here for flex this is a problem. Also, getting to work is hard when the traffic after flex is so chaotic.

Personally, I believe there could be an alternative block at the end of the day that is more engaging and is more beneficial than flex. A lot of students find themselves just going on their phones and having nothing to do.

             There should be a change to flex and the administration really needs to rethink what flex is right now. I think students would really look forward to Flex if it was more engaging. I think if students start to get involved more and come up with ideas of what they would want in flex it would be very beneficial. 

Many other schools have a lot of self-driven advisory blocks where the students come up with ideas of what they want to do and they really look forward to that. I can imagine doing fun games and bringing everyone together. That would be something to look forward to too.

  I think flex was very different when I first got to highschool. It was more engaging and there were more opportunities. I would look forward to going to flex freshman year. There were so many opportunities to meet with new people. 

As soon as students get the chance to go off campus and not go to flex, it really changes everything. For some, being able to go home at the end of the fourth block is more appealing than staying in school. I really enjoyed being able to go home and then do whatever I needed to do at home. For example, I found myself getting all of my work done and being more productive. I found myself working more and making more money while others were in flex.

Other schools have similar blocks such as flex or advisory. There is a school named Housatonic Valley Regional High School in Connecticut that has a flex block in the middle of the day, yet they use it to meet with students and provide extra help along with clubs and extracurriculars. 

Currently, Flex is a block that is not being used to its full potential, and if changes are not made this block should be eliminated.

Sources:

“Housatonic Valley Regional High School.” Housatonic Valley Regional High School, www.hvrhs.org/.