Taking notes, doing worksheets, and reading textbooks already take up about five and a half hours in a typical school day out of almost seven learning hours, not including passing periods. The new plans implemented by the Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Survey for the 2014-2015 freshmen are too much for an incoming high school student on top of the classes they are already taking.

Each freshman will be required to attend a class three times a week during half of his or her lunch period, taking away about an hour per week of what students are able to use as extra homework time. These meetings will be geared towards lowering the stress level students experience during the year, which students said was an issue, according to the school’s website and the results of the survey. Contrary to the goal, however, these meetings may end up causing more stress because students also need that down time in order to get through the rest of the day.  If these actions are really necessary, these actions should be even more limited than they already are.

Allowing students to meet with their counselors is a great idea towards creating relationships between administration and students, which teaches students future lessons used in college. College students need the ability to communicate, to be professional, and to work with adults, so high school is a logical time to start those great habits, but taking away free time that can jeopardize their academic excellence is not worth the lesson yet.

Students need free time, otherwise the academic ability of teenagers starts to decrease, harming the education value of classes rather than helping. When we have down time, also known as “resting-state networks,” we consolidate memories, reinforce learning, regulate our attention and emotions, and keep ourselves productive and effective in our work and judgment, according to Scientific Learning’s website. Although more learning may seem beneficial, the effect of constantly shoving more and more information into one’s brain is nowhere near helpful.

Since middle school, most students have not had recess, which was a perfect way to release all of a child’s physical energy so they could focus more after they come back inside. As  high school students, we need this unassigned time for releasing mental energy: a mental recess.

“Children need to have downtime between complex cognitive challenges,” said Dr. Robert Murray, a pediatrician and professor of human nutrition at Ohio State University, in an article on TIME’s website. “They tend to be less able to process information the longer they are held to a task. It’s not enough to just switch from math to English. You actually have to take a break.”

These 45 minute lunch periods should be used to socialize and digest not only food, but all the information from students’ busy mornings, and even have some extra homework time if wanted. Even though this new SEL program might help students be more time-efficient with their work, it is unnecessary to have three days dedicated to this idea each week.

These meetings with a counselor or professional should definitely continue on one of the specified days, but having two other days geared towards doing homework or projects is unnecessary, especially since the SEL projects are different from other homework as well. Students might need one other day to simply focus on what they are working on in class, but two seems to be taking away too much time on a weekly basis.

Overall, the SEL actions are beneficial; however, the amount of time this program is planning to take out of a freshman’s schedule is an overload. Students need their downtime, otherwise the program will be causing more of a burden rather than a boost.