<p>"Our kids don’t mind the 90 minute classes " I find that hard to believe. Our schools have detailed rules you wouldn’t believe limiting the number of times the kids are allowed to use the bathroom (I think it’s 3 per semester, and that’s a bit rough since there really isn’t time between classes). The reason for this is the kids, even the most motivated students, just cannot stand to sit through that many long classes and sometimes they just need to get up and have a break. We also have these 90 minute classes going on at the middle school and I think it’s even worse for those younger kids.</p>
<p>Well I just checked in with my D, and she confirmed that the kids at her high school don’t mind the 90 minute classes. As I said, the teachers make good use of the time to engage the students in the material. We are a small school (150 students/grade) and the kids have a lot of rapport with the teachers. Even in the more serious/rigorous subjects there is room for some fun and laughter to keep everyone awake and engaged. Bathroom policies are set by the teacher. Not allowed at all in her APUSH class, but that’s right after lunch. Other teachers are more lenient. Some teachers do let the kids eat snacks if it is a long time until lunch.</p>
<p>Our school does trimesters and I really like how it has worked out since they started that. They have 5- 70 minute classes a day plus lunch. Regular classes have an A session and B session, so they last for two trimesters (English 11 A, English 11 B). AP classes are all three trimesters (A, B and C). They have fifteen 1/2 credit slots to work with each year so 7.5 credits per year. AP classes are 1.5 credits. A big advantage for struggling kids is if they fail English 11A the first trimester, they can take it again the next trimester and stay caught up. The big advantage for brighter kids is some kids “double up” on things like science. So in 10th grade, my son took Bio A the first tri, Bio B and Chem A the second tri, and Chem B the third tri. Some kids do that with math too- or at least do like AlgII/Trig A, AlgII/TrigB, and then Pre-Calc A all in one year. </p>
<p>The only disadvantage is for Band kids. They take band all year. My Barnardgirl did have to drop 1 tri of band to be able to take an AP class one year. But she ended up graduating with way too many band credits and couldn’t explore classes outside of the core like my son has.</p>