We had a 7-period system at my high school, but rather than shortening classes, or extending the length of the day, we continued to have 6-periods a day and the

We had a 7-period system at my high school, but rather than shortening classes, or extending the length of the day, we continued to have 6-periods a day and then had a floating period that occurred at a different time each day. It was announced over the intercom so there wasn't much confusion about what class you were going to. For example: Mon 1 2 3 4 5 6 Tue 7 2 3 4 5 6 Wed 1 7 3 4 5 6 Thu 1 2 7 4 5 6 Fri 1 2 3 7 5 6 Mon 1 2 3 4 7 6 Tue 1 2 3 4 5 7 Repeat I loved it. Keeping classes the full duration was more efficient (especially for classes with fixed setup/cleanup time, like band or science labs). Since the floating period was always an elective, it felt you were getting a "break" when it landed on a class you didn't like. But most importantly it gave you an extra elective. Over the years, as requirements have continued to increase the number of electives that students can take have declined significantly. I think this is a huge loss. We need to be doing more to help students figure out what they want to do when they graduate, and providing exposure to things beyond core curriculum is an essential part of that.