Today at San Luis Obispo High School we have a 35 minute lunch. While 35 minutes may seem like ample time for lunch, most students prefer to leave campus and do not have enough time to reach their destination, eat, and return to class. This puts the students in a stressful predicament, in that they are in a race against time to complete their lunch meal. With an additional 15 minutes, the students wouldn’t have to be in this stressful situation. This additional 15 minutes to lunch can be accomplished by either eliminating nutrition break, starting earlier or extending the school day by 15 minutes. Expressions interviewed SLOHS students to see what they think.

Expressions: Do you think our lunch break is enough time? Why or why not?

Freshman Alyssa Block: Yes, because I have enough time to eat my food.

Junior Cassady Surfleet: No, I don’t think our lunch is long enough. The whole 35 minutes are rushed and stressful. The person driving has to deal with a bunch of traffic and they don’t always get to eat. Then their fourth period teacher won’t let them eat because it’s against the rules.

Senior Celeste Koch: I personally do not think our lunch break is long enough. It’s really stressful if you’re going off campus and are worried you won’t make it back in time, or sometimes you can get food but won’t have enough time to eat it. Even on campus, 35 minutes goes by so fast. It’s kind of ridiculous to expect any person to sit in five seventy minute class periods a day without at least an hour to recuperate, eat, walk, use the restroom, socialize, and basically do all the healthy human things that are not allowed in a classroom.

Expressions: Would you be willing to adjust to small changes in order to extend the lunch break? What method would you prefer?

Block: No because I want to keep break.

Surfleet: I would be willing to give up break for a longer lunch so that everyone has an opportunity to get and enjoy their food.

Koch: I’d be willing to adjust to changes as long as they work in our favor, which mostly they won’t. To be honest, I think the classes should be shortened and still have a longer lunch. Our attention spans have a time limit. I’m pretty sure most of the time spent or at least 20 minutes of each class we are distracted, wishing it was over, hungry, or desperately need to use the restroom but not being allowed to because our teacher will subtract five points from our daily participation grade.