FLEX time or AC Lab? This was among the many questions students and teachers have been asking in the return to school this year, and the topic seems to be on many people’s minds as we experience AC Lab’s debut. In general, the overwhelming majority of students seem to harbor feelings of resentment towards the new, restricted alternative to FLEX time. While they serve similar purposes in theory, they have vastly different forms of implementation, specifically narrowing down on the freedom which students have. For example, students are now restricted to a specific classroom for the duration of a mod, for which they need to acquire a signed pass. These restrictions are incredibly inconvenient for everyone involved, students and teachers alike. Some argue that AC Lab eliminated the distractions facilitated through an unstructured FLEX time, but in reality, those distractions have merely moved into the classroom in the forms of playing video games, meeting with friends, or any other activities deemed “distracting”. Students used to look forward to FLEX time which was a much needed break in our busy days. According to psychology Professor Peter Gray at Boston College, students experience optimal learning under circumstances in which they are given more freedoms. The transition away from FLEX time has been fundamentally unsuccessful in accomplishing the original goals of students being more productive, instead creating an alternative environment in which students have embraced the mentality of simply going through the motions at school with nothing to look forward to.