When it comes to the many schedule changes that have taken place this year, no aspect is as controversial among the student body as Flex Block. While some students have come to appreciate the benefits that Flex Block brings, other students have come to resent its downsides.

These two sides showed themselves when interviewing a variety of Harwood students. The sample size for this survey was very small, with only 10 students interviewed. The participating students consisted of one freshman, two sophomores, two juniors, and five seniors.

On one side of the coin, many students appreciate Flex Block and what it has to offer. “I think that it is beneficial to me because it fills time with something that is positive and helps me grow in the subject that I enjoy,” said one junior. Another student simply said, “It’s pretty productive.” Furthermore, around 3 in every 4 students polled found Flex Block to be fun.

However, the reception of the concept overall seems to lean towards a more negative stance. Though the statistic above is true, many students who had a negative view on Flex Block did not answer whether or not they thought it was fun.

When factoring the assumed opinion of this group in, the statistic drops from 3 out of 4 to 1 out of 2 students finding flex block enjoyable.

In an interview, one of these students called Flex block “a pointless waste of time.”

The general consensus is that Flex block is flawed in its lack of interesting options rather than the system itself. They argue that if there were more fun and useful options, or some sort of student input on which Flex blocks are available, it would be much better. 

“The predetermined list has very few enjoyable Flex blocks,” said one junior. “I think that we should take student suggestions so it’s more relevant to us. I feel like study halls are a good idea during that time, but I know a lot of kids don’t really have anything to do. So, fun and productive Flex blocks are probably a better use of time.”

“I feel like I know a lot of people who think their Flex blocks are really useless,” said a freshman. “If we could change it, we should have more study halls or things that students find fun or useful.”

All in all, the most common and popular opinion among the student body is the following: the system itself could work very well with a couple of tweaks, especially an increase in the amount and diversity of the available options. With this, Flex block could become a very useful and fun aspect of Harwood’s curriculum.