Finally the day that I, and other Academy Upper School students have been waiting for, has come. The dreaded plus ten days are pretty much gone for good, thanks to shorter Junior Speeches and no announcements on speech days.

Streamlining the Junior Speeches is a dream come true to most students, seeing as we will now be able to get to lunch on time, instead of spending ten more minutes in our classes. Although the majority of the student body is happy about this, the Juniors now have 4-6 minutes to speak instead of 5-7.

Is this shortening of such an important Academy tradition detrimental to student expression? Do they have enough time to say what they want? After more days of shortened speeches and no announcements, we will find out.

Written by Riley Ransom’15