Our present school system needs to be changed. The world is changing; people, ideas, philosophy, time, ways of living, status, pressures, environment. Yet our school system remain stable, or is stagnant the word? The most important element to be considered is time, which seems to be most precious today. Other changes are needed, but the time wasted with our present system is indeed getting to be ridiculous.

To illustrate we have created an average student, which does not necessarily apply to anyone in particular, just an average of extremes. The average student gets up about 6:45 and gets to school on the bus about 7:45. He arrives home about 4:15, making the total hours spent for school about nine and a half. If the student goes to bed at 10:30 (taking an hour out for dinner), this leaves him about five hours to call his own? Not quite, subtract two hours for homework for a normal load, and he has three hours of leisure time. Three hours out of a 24 hour day?

Look at the time spent in school from 8 to 3:37. Sure some people leave early, but the average student is not that lucky. He takes the usual four courses ant gym. This leaves him with three and one-half periods free or time wise, two and one-half hours. We wonder how much is accomplished in this time with the average student, usually not much unless

there is something that urgently needs to be done. Face it, seniors and juniors do not study in PAR; and freshmen and sophomores waste most of their study halls-not because they are lazy, but because they need time to relax and visit. Is it unnecessary to coop a student up in a study for 20 or 40 minutes when they usually waste the time anyway through no fault of their own?

Why, then, couldn't school be shorter with no study halls or lunch? If school started at 8 it could end at 1. The first class would end at 8:55, the second would start at 9 and end at 9:55 and so on. There would be five periods during the day, with no break except between classes. Would classes be more crowded? If studies were eliminated, there would be room for more classes. More emphasis would be put on education, and students would get a lot more out of their school day.

Giving the student more leisure time has many advantages. He will cut less; he will have more time for working after school, if he needs the money. With the periods so long homework will be seriously cut if not eliminated. After school activities would not run until 7.

The plan is not perfect, but it shouldn't be disregarded. We need more time. Schools are supposed to be for us.