Opinion: ExAMIning Alternative Education

Last year, Jonesboro High School adopted a new form of education called Alternative Method of Instruction (AMI) that is used when school is canceled because of inclement weather.

Previously, the district relied on a certain number of days allowed for wintry weather before school days were tacked on to the school calendar at the beginning of summer.

AMI days are possible at JHS because the school district provides students with laptop computers.

JHS begins supplying personal MacBooks in 10th grade so students can do their work at home online.

Although doing schoolwork at home ruins the fun of a snow day, AMI work has a lot of pros.

Now with AMI work, students can sit in bed wearing their pajamas while working on their own time.

Students who have trouble working under a time restriction don’t have to worry about finishing work on the teacher’s time, but theirs.

Instead of having to finish the work before the block is over, you have almost a week to turn in your work.

Plus, JHS has block scheduling, so if you only miss one day for the snow, you only miss four periods rather than eight.

When it’s on the students’ time, they can wake up whenever they want, getting enough sleep to be productive, and do their work in whatever length of time it requires to complete their assignments.

Although there are many good things about AMI work, it’s easier for people to cheat because there is no one watching them.

Plus, the work from teachers at JHS did not align with what the students had been working on in class. It made the work feel irrelevant.

Since the work did not equal up to the work in class, the students don’t want to do it because they see no point in doing it. This leads to the students not doing their work, and receiving bad grades.

Sometimes, the grades end up being 10 points, too. There is no point in doing the work if the students don’t care about their grades.

Some students don’t have WiFi either, which gets in the way of finishing the work. Those students can’t even access the assignments.

The main reason AMI appeals to some of the students is that it knocks off days at the end of the school year.

Most people don’t actually care about the work; they only care about what they can get out of it: a longer summer.