Since I arrived at Plano Senior, I have enjoyed switching from the normal 30 minute lunch to the extended 50 minute lunch. The great thing about the 50 minutes is that you don’t have to rush to eat your food, and you have a lot of time to socialize with friends or go to tutorials.

If the school is going to let us go off campus, they might as well give us a longer period of time for lunch – so we don’t have to rush.

A 50 minute lunch is nice if you are staying on campus, but for students who choose to go off campus, 50 minutes just is not enough time. Once students are released from lunch, they have to walk out to the parking lot and drive to the location they wish to eat at. Usually, it takes five to ten minutes to get out of the parking lot. After you arrive at the destination, you usually have barely any time to eat. Most places have a good amount of people in the restaurant, so this factor can also take away from the time you have to eat.

Taking about three minutes off each class to make lunch longer wouldn’t make much of a difference to our education, but it will give students time to leave, and then come back with time to spare. I often find myself stuffing my food down because there isn’t time left to eat. In addition, it would give students who prefer to stay at school for lunch extra time to work on homework and socialize with peers. Getting an early start on homework really helps during lunch, so you don’t have as much when you get home.

Lots of students who go off campus end up arriving late to their fifth period. This proves that we are not provided enough time for lunch. A 50 minute lunch would be fine if we didn’t have the option to go off campus. Unfortunately, most students don’t want to stay and eat at school because the food is overpriced and low quality.

A longer lunch is the best solution because it will cut down on tardies for 5th period, and allow students who leave school for lunch an opportunity to take their time and enjoy their food. Lunch should be extended at least another 15 to 20 minutes.