Oftentimes at Woodland, students can be seen wandering the hallways, whether it is in study hall, advisory, or just any class. Teachers are frustrated and complain about seeing these students wander, claiming that they are just wasting classroom time or being lazy, but there is a method to the wandering students.
According to the Chicago Tribune, people should be doing their best to stand for at least two hours during an eight hour work day. With students, they are forced to sit for 80 minutes at a time, with only five minutes to move between classes before settling down for another 80.
Over the course of a school day, following the breaks that the school gives, students are allowed to stand up for 20 minutes, only 17% of the minimum time people should be standing throughout the day.
“I remember back during COVID, we used to get mask breaks,” said junior Cheyenne Haupler. “Now we don’t do that and I used to love the break especially since it was outside.”
Students will begin to feel tired and bored throughout the duration of a class or school day. Having the ability to take a brain break and wander the hallways for ten minutes will actually help to improve their concentration in class and help to wake them up.
“I start to feel tired in certain blocks,” said junior Rebecca Armstrong. “I find getting up and moving for a little bit is helpful.”
When comparing schedules between different grades, it is found that freshman and sophomores are likely to get the most exercise throughout the course of a day. Freshman and sophomores have the opportunity to get up and walk during study halls, as well as the requirement to take a physical education class. This allows students to move around for about 100 minutes, which is closer to the minimum two hours that students should be getting.
While freshman and sophomores have the ability to move around more with both a physical education class and a study hall, when you get up to junior year, schedules become much more packed. Several students do not have a study hall, meaning that they have eight full classes, truly limiting the amount of time that one can move throughout the day to 20 minutes. Especially students that do not want to miss AP or ECE classes.
But, what many do not realize is the detrimental effects of sitting down for these long periods of time. Sitting down for long periods of time can affect older and younger people and can cause blood clots in your legs. According to the Cleveland Clinic blood clots are “semi-solid or gel-like masses,” that can form within your veins and arteries that block the flow of blood, which could eventually lead to a stroke or cardiac arrest.
“If you’re sitting for those long periods of time and only getting a five minute break in between every single block, you are at a serious risk for getting blood clots in your legs, which can be very dangerous,” said EMT Kailyn Lawton.
In order to prevent these types of things, physical education teacher Kathleen Tranquilo recommends that students take a break in between each activity within a class in order to assist the brain in transitioning from activity to activity.
“I find that it is very beneficial to break up tasks by going to get a drink of water down the hallway,” said Tranquilo. “It wakes your brain up and it helps your brain to transition from task to task throughout the day.”
Not having breaks can be detrimental to both physical and mental health by wandering the hallways, it can not only help to wake the brain up, but it can also prevent life threatening health issues such as blood clots. So, getting up and moving around during class through wandering of the hallways is not always such a bad thing, while it is understandable that teachers do not want students to miss out on class time, health is also important, so you should wander a little more often.
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/17675-blood-clots
