You’re sitting in third period, starving, and you have to wait till seventh period to eat. You also need to text your mom to drop off your lunch. To top it all off, not only are you hungry, your backpack is so heavy, but there isn’t enough time to switch out your binders in three minutes. Students should have a short break between periods three and four because they need time to do things they normally wouldn’t be allowed to in school, like eat breakfast and go to their lockers.

To start, breakfast is a very important meal that all students should be eating. Not eating breakfast can cause many learning issues. “Children who do not eat breakfast at home or at school were less able to learn. Hunger can lead to lower math scores, attention problems, and behavior, emotional, and academic problems” (Baildo). It is shown how eating breakfast can help you stay focused and do better academically. Lots of kids don’t eat breakfast, which can cause lots of problems. Having this time in between class would help the kids who need to eat, eat their breakfast, so they can be better students. Furthermore, lunch is very late in the day especially considering students usually eat breakfast around seven A.M. “Lunch should be about four to five hours after breakfast. For example, if you ate breakfast at seven A.M. eat lunch between 11 am and noon” (Northwestern Medicine). Eighth graders eat between 12:40 and 1:20 P.M. If the students eat breakfast around 7, or they don’t eat breakfast at all, then there is much more time in between meals than just five hours. Having the extra time between periods three and four would allow students to get the food they need, so they can reach their full academic potential.

Secondly, students will be able to focus more and retain  the information they are receiving if they have time to take a break. “Childhood development experts generally say that a reasonable attention span to expect of a child is two to three minutes per year of their age. That’s the period of time for which a typical child can maintain focus on a given task” (Brain Balance). This demonstrates that children in middle school are only able to focus for about 25 to 35 minutes. If given the opportunity to have a short break between classes instead of going straight to another 40 minute class, students will be able to regain their focus and participate more.

Moreover, having extra time between classes can help students relieve their backs by removing some of the weight from books and binders. Backpacks are too heavy for students and can cause issues over time. “The longer someone carries extra weight, the worse the condition and body posture get. Over time, the person can experience pain, flexibility problems, stiffness, and reduced range of motion” (Cobb Angle). This shows how having a heavy backpack can affect students in a bad way. If we dedicate just a little bit of extra time for students to go to their lockers and switch out their binders, maybe everybody won’t look so slumped over in class.  Some may argue that losing class time for this break is silly. However, one minute from each class isn’t detrimental to the learning of students, especially when the results could be extremely helpful to the child’s learning. 

To make this break possible, all we would have to do is take one minute from each period, except lunch. This break would solve so many problems that all middle schoolers have. Such as heavy backpacks, not enough time in the passing period, and not an early enough lunch.