Since the school’s recent and controversial decision to cut back on the number of FAB Wednesdays in our school year, the topic has been prominent among the students and teachers here at Cartersville high school. And while I can see many issues with the choice, I think now is an important time to address an issue much older than the unruly freshmen this year; new assignments on a makeup day.

First though, let’s be clear about what FAB actually is. On most Wednesdays here at Cartersville High School, the days are divided between regular school assignments and tutoring for any student whose grades are below 70.  When asked what the purpose of FAB is, Mrs. Tierce, our principal said,” FAB Wednesdays are designed to provide tutoring and academic support for all students.” But what does FAB mean to the kids?

At this point, half of the student body is made up of people who didn’t experience the older organization of Wednesdays, but I remember. I remember speeding through all 8 of my classes in the first four hours of the day and getting almost nothing done during those tiny sessions. All of my teachers, except for Mrs. Pettis, resigned to the fact that no one can productively teach a lesson, or complete a meaningful assignment in such a small window of time, so instead of real work, we did makeup work, and while I would love to say to our fair and just principle that the time was helpful, it was entirely useless. But then things changed.

Last year during FAB, we sat in only one classroom for the first 4 hours of the day, completing various things in the allotted time slots which had been preprepared for us. Our schedules were hectic, and our security in it was unstable at best. Covid 19 was a beast to our school’s scheme, and because of it my teachers deeply prioritized giving us time to make things up. This time was the most productive I have ever been as a student. I struggled freshmen year with my grades, but the change in FAB changed everything. With 4 hours of uninterrupted time to get things done, I was an academic workhorse. My grades went from a B- to A+. Not only was I able to make things up, but I was able to keep on top of things. It really helped me, but once again that system has been changed.

“ I don’t like the advisement time. Last Wednesday it led into our math time, and I couldn’t get that work done in the math time.”`

“I don’t like the changes they made this year. Like yeah, the freshmen aren’t doing their work. How is that my problem? It’s kind of like how in elementary school when one kid got in trouble and the teacher punished the whole class by taking away their recess. Sure, some kids weren’t doing their work, but there were plenty of kids who were.”

“It’s hard for me to catch up on my work when they overload me with new work.”

These are some of the quotes my fellow students gave me when I asked about their feelings on FAB Wednesdays this year.

This year’s fab is, on paper, the same 4 hours with neatly little split up time slots, but with three changes. This year, teachers aren’t prioritizing making things up. They are prioritizing getting back to normal. Another difference is that the school has added “informative presentations” into our study hall period. The final, and the most controversial difference is that staff decided to take away some of our FAB Wednesdays because of undesirable behaviors portrayed by some students this year.

Because our teachers are determined to make things “normal”, they give us new, and redundant assignments to fill up the free time. This takes away any spare time we may have had to get caught up.  What’s worse is that the only period our teachers cannot fill up, study hall, is completely taken by an assembly meeting talking about mental health. The idea is sweet, but these presentations have always been filled with ear-piercing audio and a tendency to take away time from the next work period, which also happens to be math, the hardest subject. Finally, all the students who can make use of the time and benefit from the tutoring sessions at the end of the day are not able to get that help because FAB has been canceled on random days due to a few bad behaviors they aren’t in control of. Students are having their time taken up by busywork, loud, poorly organized assemblies, and then they are punished for not being productive. But for successful students, the negative consequence is not illuded. They get to lose time they were utilizing well because of other students’ actions. There is no winning.

It’s no secret that this year FAB has been less successful than it was in other years. Every teacher and student whispers of out of area freshmen and lazy seniors not showing up, but is it really any surprise that they aren’t doing what they’re supposed to when the work we’re supposed to be doing serves us no purpose other than wasting what could have been productive time?

Let’s not beat around the bush, new assignments on FAB Wednesdays hinder our performance as students, and the hectic scheduling, random punishments, and loud assemblies aren’t helping either. In execution, FAB works directly in spite of its stated purpose.