There is Never Enough Time
by Antonio
One of the first things I remember learning in my graduate work in education was that no matter what I did or how well I planned, there would simply never be enough time for me to get everything done. It just wasn’t possible, there were too many demands, too much work, not enough time. In the 14 years since, not much has changed. Regardless of the school you work for, or whether you are a teacher or administrator, the same mantra pervades most discussions that there is just not enough time to get everything done. The demands on students have not decreased, if anything, they and/or their parents inflict additional stress to be in every club, to compete at the highest athletic levels, to take 5 AP courses. It feels like not only has life gotten more complicated, but we try to pack 27 hours worth of “stuff” into a 24 hour day.
I am sure many schools have spent countless hours in faculty meetings discussing this schedule over that schedule and in some schools, the way we use time with students looks more or less the way it did 20, 30 even 50 years ago. Let’s face it. With the exception of a few schools around the country, the majority of schools function on the old agrarian based calendar where students were sent home for the summer months to work on the farm or in the fields and then sent back to school after the harvest in the fall. in fact, prior to the Great Depression, a few year-long schools popped up in mostly urban areas but they quickly lost favor in light of tough economic times. And since WWII our society has become less agrarian with each passing decade.
Yet, we continue to try and pack 10 lbs of potatoes in a 5 lb bag. We are pressed to find time to making meaningful changes in teacher practice; be it integration of technology, service learning opportunities, real-world experiences and multicultural education. Many schools regardless of their public or private designation are driven by standards based testing pressures, MCAS, SAT, AP exams etc. Students and parents are told by colleges and universities that they must have a breadth and depth of extra-curricular and co-curricular activities on their high school resumes as well as multiple AP courses and a commitment to community service. When will we pause for a moment and reflect that it is simply not possible for us to do it all.
Here in the New England we are only about 6 weeks into the winter season and many schools have lost significant time due to ice and snow, some as many as 8 to 10 school days. It has reached a point where the Massachusetts Secretary of Education is needing to weight adding school days to the year. The point is this; we need to rethink how we devote time to teaching and learning. Continuing to try and do it all in a 160 or 180 school days is only one component we must look at. Rethinking what we do with students during the school day is the second major task. Segmented, structed blocks be they rotating or non-rotating create learning environments that more accurately reflect the industrial age rather than the information age. Starting classes prior to 8:00 am for teenagers and after 9:00 am for elementary school aged children seems backwards to me. Rethinking the priorities and expectations parents and colleges place on young people also needs equal time in the conversation.
Regardless of your opinion of year-round schooling, breaking up the year into smaller and more reasonable chunks of time with breaks spread out over the entire year rather than during the winter, spring and throughout the bulk of the summer months would address issues of summer learning loss, provide extended time for meaningful real-world experiences and field trips and lastly, remove the pressure those of us in education feel to “cram” it in or “get it all done.” Embracing the notion that learning can occur outside the confines of the four walls of a traditional classroom and beyond the hours of 8am and 3pm will allow us to embrace the reality that is the 21st century we are now fully living in and can no longer simply continue preparing for.
Photo Credit: ToniVC