A widely discussed topic at Pitman High School is the shortened lunch period. To those who don’t experience lunch everyday, having three minutes taken away from a forty minute lunch period isn’t a big deal. To the students at PHS, three minutes is a huge deal. High school students use their lunch period to socialize, eat, and attend club meetings among other things. It is a lot of activity to fit into forty minutes and some students are having a hard time understanding why the lunch time has changed.

  After an interview with Mr. Jack, I was able to find an answer as to why Pitman’s lunch was shortened. One of the reasons was that over the course of the school year, teachers have meetings to collaborate with each other over their teaching and curriculum. These meetings often take place after school but without minimum days, these meetings cannot take place. Our lunch was shortened by three minutes so that over the school year, those three minutes add up to multiple minimum school days. Those minimum days are used for collaboration meetings.

  Even though there is a reason for our shortened lunch period, many students are still eager to share their opinion on the topic. When I asked Nuri Al-raheem, a junior, she said, “Thirty minutes are a huge difference. When you go to get your lunch, the lines are too long and by the time you have purchased your lunch you don’t have enough time to eat!”

  Although I have not stood in the lunch lines myself, I understand what Nuri is saying. Even if you bring your lunch you don’t have enough time to eat.

  I asked Gergio Rodriguez, a junior, whether or not he liked the shortened lunch and he answered, ”No I don’t because, you don’t have enough time to visit with your friends.”

  Yezinia Gonzalez said,” I do not like the shortened lunch because we need a longer break in between classes.”

  It seems that most students would answer the question, whether or not they liked the shortened lunch and why, with similar answers.

  Even with a reason for the shortened lunch, there are still many students who are unhappy about their shortened lunch period. But as the school year goes on I believe that we will all adjust to the period and it won’t make a difference to us anymore. It seems like the shortened period is such a big deal because it’s a new thing to us and as time goes on it will become less and less controversial.