This school year, Herriman High has introduced MAP, which stands for Mustang Academic Period. It is a 30 minute period between first and second, and it takes place every Monday through Thursday, but not on Friday due to the late start day.

During first period every week, the teacher will hand out a little card with your grades on it. If you have a white card, you’re failing (or have a D-) and you must go to that teacher to get your work turned in. If you have a colored card, you can either go to a class where you need help in, the library, or the cafeteria. They also have the career lab open for scholarship help.

The reason we have MAP is because students and teachers both have lives outside of school, and it’s hard for them to stay long after school everyday to give students the extra help they need. Students can still show up after school, however some teachers might not be there.

A lot of students think that MAP is just a time to play around and do whatever they want, which includes thinking they can leave campus, which isn’t true. Leaving campus will result in an automatic sluff. This period is still considered a class, and it’s a great opportunity to get things done.

There are a couple flaws in the system, and not everything is perfect. First, the cards: they are great when it comes to knowing your grades, but you’re stuck with them for at least two weeks. That’s plenty of time for your grades to change dramatically. However, before you can sign into a location, you need to present your card, and teachers will often turn you down for having a white card, even though your grades are different. “No one wants to sit in a classroom for two weeks just because of a bad grade. If you can go somewhere else to improve that grade, you should be able to,” said Lalanya Symes (‘16). The time has since changed to one week per card.

Next, some teachers’ classes might get really full, and granted, you’ll have the time to get the help and do the work, but that doesn’t mean your teachers will have time to get around to helping everyone. Also, it’s hard to focus with a lot of kids in one classroom talking and hanging out.

“I do like MAP, because I recognize it is good for the kids and it does help with test redos and making up missed work and for getting extra help. However, it is very stressful at times because you might have as many as 30 kids in the class and they all need something different. Trying to individualize can be frustrating because it just isn’t enough time,” said Troy Ball, Social Studies Chair.

Finally, students take it as a time to hang out with each other instead of actually getting schoolwork done. Even though they might not be failing a class, a lot of students still have stuff they could be doing. Instead, they just see their card isn’t white and they do whatever they please.