Extended Learning Plan

[CINYOUNG HUANG]

Dear School Board Members,

My name is Cinyoung Huang, and I am currently a junior who attends Los Alamos High School. I am writing this email to express my opinion on the upcoming decision for the 2021-22 SY calendar.

While an extended school year at first is unappealing for students, as time would be removed from breaks, ultimately you should still add more school days to the school year calendar because this time could be very valuable for exploring passions.

Personally, I believe that this extended time, if used for exploring passions, could help guide my peers and myself. For example, students who would like to become a park ranger do not currently have any courses at the school that would help them further this passion. If extended learning time is implemented, this time could be used for helping these students gain true experience for their future occupation. In this case, the extended learning time could be used for opportunities to build trails or to work with employees at PEEC which would give those students hands-on-experience with what becoming a park ranger entails.

As a student who plans on pursuing a career in chemistry or biology, I believe that I could benefit greatly from additional school days. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I lost the opportunity to work in many different labs. In chemistry, I never got to plan and execute an acid-base titration, and in biology, I was never able to do a gel electrophoresis lab. With extra school days, I would be able to regain the experiences that I lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

However, I do not want my preference towards doing labs during this extended time to be misconstrued as an argument for increasing seat time. Personally, in my classes, I have found that we almost always finish the content either on time or with plenty of time to spare. Thus, I am worried that if this extra time is spent on increasing seat time, it would be essentially wasted, similarly to how classes do not do much after finals are done. 

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Cinyoung Huang

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