Here’s another column inspired by my students’ persuasive essays. They were writing about rules or other items they’d like to see changed. Last week, I wrote about something we worked on together, not tacking make-up days to the end of the school year. This week, I’ll look at a very common theme in all my years of teaching: passing time between classes.
At NRHEG, we have three minutes between each class. I’ve always thought that’s plenty of time to get from one class to your locker and on to your next class. Here’s always been my rationale: Three minutes was good enough for me. It was good enough for my wife. We both have tales of our high schools being three stories (mine still is at New Ulm Cathedral; Michelle’s old Ellendale-Geneva school is now our one-story elementary building). We always managed to make it in plenty of time, even when we had to traverse from the top floor to the bottom and all the way across the school.
Surely, that’s good enough reason, isn’t it? On top of that, my school had built-in locks on all our lockers. We had no choice but to twirl the correct combination before entering the dark depths of a high school locker. Of course, I was rather nerdish in that I had organized my books in the order in which I’d need them. As I returned books to my locker, I’d put them on the far right and grab the ones on the far left, sliding them along throughout the day. There are not locks on our current lockers unless a student chooses to borrow one from the school, but few do.
I like to be lenient at the beginning of the year, especially with my new 7th-graders, before issuing tardies. They’re still trying to figure out their way around the school, after all. But within 1-2 weeks, that should be old hat, and tardies are given. When they argue that 30 seconds late shouldn’t matter, my retort is always that their boss someday may not tolerate that. If you’re late too often, you won’t be returning to that job. I remind them that I’m nice enough not to count them tardy merely by the darkening of my doorstep. I’ve known plenty of teachers who count you late if you’re not in your seat when the bell rings. And who can forget Mr. Hand locking the door at that point in Fast Times at Ridgemont High?
But the more I read these essays, year after year, the more I stop and think about things. Every year, it seems I have students who need to make it from the art room or the FACS room clear at the other end of the building to my classroom in those three minutes. And the more I try to weave my way through those halls at various times, I know what a challenge that can be. Oh, it can be done, but I’m also a larger presence than most of my 12-13 year olds. High schoolers are more willing to part like the Red Sea upon spying me than they might be with your typical hobbit.
It can be a bit like salmon swimming upstream to make it down a high school hallway as a middle schooler. This is something we didn’t really take into account a decade ago when we switched our middle school to New Richland. We knew there could be some issues mingling those age levels together, but thought they’d be largely worked out through separation of the two sides of the school. But there are those treks into the high school that all our middle school stars have to make at some point.
Is it time to extend passing time? It very well might be. Students like to argue for five minutes instead of three. One even claimed in a paper this year that then there should be no need to use the bathroom or get a drink during class, since this student felt that the five minutes allotted would be sufficient to make it somewhere and take care of any business needed.
I worry a bit, though, about adding two minutes between each class. It might cause a bit more disruption than would be needed. Teachers and paras have to be extra vigilant during passing time. We step out in the hallways to patrol and keep the chaos to a minimum. Giving the kids an extra two minutes when most of them likely don’t need quite that long would be like holding on to a firework as long as you can – at some point you’re going to get burned and there will be an explosion.
I don’t mind letting kids use the bathroom during class most days. Sometimes it just doesn’t work, based on what we’re doing, but the majority of the days there is some work time. Just like teachers have to train their bladders based on their schedules, so do students. Of course, five minute passing time would probably be welcomed by teachers who would feel they could visit a restroom at some point other than lunch and the end of the day!
No, if we were to switch things, I’d vote for going to four minutes, at least as a start. Give students that extra minute to wade through the clogged hallways. It might not always be enough time to stop at the bathroom, but drinks could be more easily gained. Students always put forth the idea that they need more time to socialize between classes and then they’d be less riled up in your class. I’m not sure I buy that, especially since too many of them would just use the extra minute to troll through their social media.
Is this an idea whose time has come? After nearly 23 years of teaching, I think I’m finally coming around to the idea. Where could it go from here? As I’ll remind my students, they have the power of numbers. If enough of them present the idea in a refined way to the administration, perhaps change will come. If not, they’d better hurry or they’ll be late for their next class!
Word of the Week: This week’s word is reprobate, which means a person who often does wrong, as in, “The reprobate used the extra passing time to vape in the bathroom between each class.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!