Tired, Overworked, Burnt-Out: The Case for a Junior Free Period

OPINION—If you ask an adult to look back on their four years spent in high school and to think about which one was most challenging, they’d likely say junior year. 

“Junior year is the worst,” according to an article from the Los Angeles Times. Even Denver Jewish Day School’s principal, Dr. Jeremy Golubcow-Teglasi, said his hardest year of high school was "definitely junior year”. 

A survey this year of 42 DJDS high school students found that 65 percent of them say junior year has the most work. “Juniors have so much on their plate during junior year, and have this expectation to get it all done, plus study for the SATs and ACTs and do all of this college prep, and there is not enough time to do it,” said DJDS junior Julie Steiner. “[My stress levels] are horrible. Like through the roof.”

DJDS juniors statistically take the hardest classes available to them, by taking the most AP classes compared to any other year.

After surveying 32 seniors, juniors, and sophomores about how many AP classes they took or expect to take as a junior, 88 percent of them took multiple AP Classes. 28 percent of those said they took or expect to take four or more AP classes. 

In comparison to classes those students took as sophomores, only one student took more than two APs, and 65 percent of students in their sophomore year took fewer than two APs. 

Lastly, for this year's senior class and juniors, who were asked about what they are taking or expect to take next year, 72 percent of them said they are taking multiple APs, down 16 percent compared to juniors, and only 27 percent said they are taking or will take four or more APs. Ultimately, this begs the question: why don’t Juniors get a free period? 

Seniors at DJDS have had free periods going back many years, and yet many people share a belief that junior year is the hardest year of high school. 

There are many benefits of having free periods for juniors. Or, instead, what I think would be most beneficial is having an optional academic study hall period. 

There are valid concerns that a free period where juniors are allowed to go off campus with their phones and do nothing related to school is probably not going to solve their problems of having too much work and going to bed too late, so instead, limit them to staying on school property. 

“We need structured time at school that’s dedicated to just accomplishing things,” Steiner said. “Not only are you taking away an hour that a student may be working late at night, subsequently allowing them to get an extra hour of sleep, but I find myself being more focused and capable of getting more work done in school... being forced to have our phones locked up makes me really productive in school, a level of productivity I can’t replicate at my house, especially late at night.”

In addition, an academic study hall could serve as a time to get work done earlier in the day and open up more time later in the day for extracurriculars, relaxation time, or more sleep. An academic study hall, at worst, is an hour during the day that a busy junior can reflect on their life and take some time for themselves. 

Not only do 11th graders take the most amount of rigorous classes, but they also typically partake in the most extracurriculars and leadership roles. 

Dalia Arch-Andorsky, a current junior, is taking four APs, along with balancing ACT tutoring once a week, flute practice once a week, and orchestra performance once a week.  

Steiner is currently the president of her BBYO chapter, which she spends between two and three and a half hours a week working on. 

For other juniors at DJDS, they get really involved with Wednesdays. “For most people, Wednesday is a catch your breath day,” Golubcow-Teglasi said. “But that is not the case for many of the driven juniors.”

“Wednesdays [during junior year] were my most stressful day of the week,” said Karen Gerecht, a senior at DJDS. 

Gerecht had two hours of AP Physics lab in the morning, then Moot Court and Moot Beit Din in the afternoon. Two classes that are clubs, but still require a lot of outside work. “There was always something on Wednesday that made it super stressful,” she said. “If you apply yourself, Wednesdays are never about less work.”

For the juniors who really want to push themselves to make the most out of their junior year, to have the best chance of getting into their dream university, they will often utilize every opportunity that DJDS has to offer them. This means maximizing the clubs they can take on Wednesdays, taking the most rigorous courses the rest of the week, and participating in the most leadership opportunities after school.

Junior year is also when many juniors start to seriously think about college. They start to create a list of schools, draft their common application essay, and study for either the SAT or ACT.  

“Mz. O would love it [juniors having an academic study hall] because she’d have time to meet with juniors, that’s not just lunch,” Golubcow-Teglasi said. 

For all of the reasons above, it seems like juniors could benefit from having one less thing on their plate. Gerecht says she averaged 5-6 hours of homework during junior year. “If I had a study hall period during junior year, I would not have gone as crazy,” she said. 

At DJDS, there are seven periods where you can take a class; the first six are reserved more or less for math, English, science, social studies, Hebrew, and Judaic classes. That leaves one extra class to add to your schedule. 

According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, private high schools in America during the 2021-2022 school year, on average, had 6.9-hour school days. DJDS has 7.5-hour school days.

While Golubcow-Teglasi does pride DJDS on giving students long lunches and two extended breaks during the day, a factor that contributes to DJDS’ abnormally long days, it doesn’t mean lunch is an hour of free time. 

“[My lunches are] very busy, I rarely have lunches where I get to do anything fun,” Steiner said. She always had homework she could be doing, or teachers to meet with, or a meeting to go to.

“With Moot Court—and a lot of teachers get themselves into this position—my lunches and afternoons are booked for like a couple of weeks. I find myself asking some students: Do you have a free period I can meet you in?” Golubcow-Teglasi said. 

In many cases, during junior year, your lunches are not the mental break or supposed free time that the school advertises. They’re filled with college admissions meetings, extracurricular meetings, test make-ups, and more. 

Golubcow-Teglasi’s biggest concern with offering juniors free periods or academic study halls is that “people will just take the easy way and not get to experience those seventh classes.” He worries that allowing juniors the choice to either take an additional class or not will result in most students not taking one. “I think all of that [Spanish, music, and drawing] gets destroyed if you make study halls or free periods available to juniors,” Golubcow-Teglasi said.

Dalia Arch-Andorsky, a junior currently enrolled in Spanish II, says she would like a free period and definitely sees the need for them. But when Arch-Andorsky was asked what class she would drop, and if she would drop Spanish, she hesitated: “Maybe I would, no, I can’t drop out.” 

But on the other hand, not all juniors are enrolled in one of those three electives; many others take two English classes, two science classes, two history classes, or two Judaics classes. 

“I can pull the college card, we’d be letting people do things to their detriment. Colleges, given that you have to take Hebrew and Judaics, where you are only taking four core courses, and not an elective, they would be pretty underwhelmed,” Golubcow-Teglasi said. 

In his view, opting not to take a course, in favor of taking an academic study hall, would appear as a less rigorous schedule to colleges, which, for the top universities, may weaken a transcript.

But this is where I disagree; unless a junior is taking Spanish, music, or speech and debate, the additional Judaics class, entry-level English class, or random science class is not that impactful for college. Those are not the kind of elective classes that show a student’s interest outside of the classroom; instead, those are just additional classes to take up space in our schedule.  

The real elective classes at our school right now are on Wednesdays, that’s where many students take an elective type class, such as Speech and Debate, Yearbook, Model UN, and more. 

For the other juniors who are taking either Spanish, music, or speech and debate (which no juniors take this year), they should have the prerogative to choose what they prioritize more— either focusing on their hardest classes, or taking as many classes as possible, which may mean being a little less successful in each. 

“By the time you’ve had two years to experiment with music, and drawing, and Spanish, and if you're super into it, you can keep doing it. But how many times can you take those classes?” Golubcow-Teglasi said. 

By junior year, most students will have a good sense of whether or not they want to continue taking music or Spanish for the second half of high school. Some may choose to continue with their hobbies and take them through senior year, and others may choose that a free period to focus on AP Physics or studying for the SAT may be more beneficial. 

The decision should not be taken lightly. If juniors were to have academic study halls, just like deciding on any other classes, they should talk with their advisors, parents, and college counselor to see what makes the most sense for them. And is it really the best use of a very busy junior's time to be forced to take an extra class instead of focusing on what will best suit them for college? 

A period to get work done for classes that students actually want to take and are not being forced to take, should be prioritized. “Free periods are a necessity for people to be able to take rigorous classes and balance a life that isn't too stressful,” said Tamar Goldberg-Butler, a current sophomore, with a brother who is currently a senior at DJDS.

I believe that for academic study halls to actually be a better use of a junior's time than taking an additional class, the study hall period must enable the junior to get more work done for their other, much more challenging classes. 

So it may make sense for there to be some sort of standard that a junior meets to prove that they need an academic study hall, and two, they are trusted to utilize their academic study hall. So maybe a minimum AP class requirement would be implemented, so that only juniors who are exceptionally busy receive a study hall period to compensate for this. 

Maybe the rule would require you to take multiple, or even three plus AP classes, or maybe the school will make you argue for why you should get a free period, and decide on a case-by-case basis. 

Academic study halls are already offered at DJDS for students who struggle with their grades and getting their work assigned on time. Or for students who need an additional period to help them understand math so that they can pass the test. 

"We're already offering it to people whose grades are low, and this would be offering it to people whose grades are really high, and whose sleep is low,” Golubcow-Teglasi said. 

The ultimate goal of the school is to see its students succeed and be able to choose what path best suits them going forward in life. 

Trusting juniors with the privilege of a loosely structured, yet purposeful, ‘free’ period empowers them to take ownership of their learning and time management. This academic study hall serves as 

a bridge between the highly structured environment of elementary, middle, and high school and the independence they will encounter in college and beyond. 

By allowing juniors to make thoughtful choices about how to use their free time, juniors develop the discipline, focus, and responsibility necessary for success after DJDS.

Ideally, the habits formed during the junior year academic flex will carry into the completely unstructured free period of senior year.