I remember the before times.
There was a splendid era of peace and prosperity at ASB that ended in September of 2023. It was an era marked by efficiency, productivity, and alleviated boredom. It was a time when short school days were not characterized by an attempt to squish every class of the day into 40 minute periods, but rather the simpler and more effective practice of skipping the classes that no longer fit into the shortened schedule.
Going into the school year of 2023 – 2024, ASB made the decision to change the way that shortened school days are handled. A greater administrative mistake had not been made since Caligula appointed his horse as a consul.1 In the past, classes that normally occurred during a period that was no longer part of the day were just canceled. This meant that while some classes would be missed during a shortened day, the classes that students still had lasted the conventional 75 minute length. However, for reasons unbeknownst to me, it was decided that this approach was unsatisfactory.
I can only imagine the events surrounding the moment this decision was made, but imagine I will. As the suggestion was made, a dark cloud passed over the building. The scratching of locusts manifested outside the windows. The sound of thunder and burnish of lightning shattered the sky. Proximate first-born children came down with mild seasonal allergies. Perhaps some frogs emerged from a nearby body of water and hopped around.
Okay, the frogs might be a stretch – the point is that there were signs.
Regrettably, and much like the protagonist of a Greek tragedy, the administrative powers who opted to make the change ignored these omens.
There have only been a few half days since the beginning of the school year. However, an event happened recently that brought this issue to my attention. March 4th, 5th, and 6th all had adjusted schedules to accommodate for MAP testing. Monday and Tuesday used the new 40-minute period format, while Wednesday just skipped the first period. I think this week clearly indicated my issues with the new system and contrasted it with the old.
When classes are shortened to 40 minute periods, the actual amount of work done is almost equivalent to how much would be done without the class at all. This means that instead of just missing two periods out of a half day, you’re missing all four. There isn’t enough time in class for students to get into a ‘flow state’ where they’re settled into the class and focused. Granted, this isn’t by any means guaranteed to occur in regular-length classes either, but it’s at least more likely. In the Monday and Tuesday of MAP testing week, I did effectively nothing in almost all of my classes. I moved too quickly between classes to accomplish anything.
I recognize that this may be a personal experience, so I interviewed other students and received concurring opinions from them. They reported a general feeling of apathy during the 40 minute periods. Much like disdain of Caligula’s rule in the Roman Empire, apathy towards classes in general is not an uncommon sentiment among students, but it is uncommon for its proliferation to be so widespread.
Despite all of my hyperbolic expositing of the problems of 40 minute periods, I do not believe they are a bad idea in a vacuum. Plenty of schools regularly operate with 40 minute – and shorter – periods, because they can be helpful in keeping students focused, especially younger students. Where I think ASB’s problems originate is the practice of intermittently making teachers who are experienced in creating lesson plans for 70 minute periods adapt to creating a lesson that’s almost 50% shorter.
If teachers were given more direction or opportunities to gain experience with shorter lesson planning, then this 40 minute period solution would perhaps work better. I’ve spoken with teachers who enjoy the shorter classes and still feel like learning occurs within the period, and this gives me hope that progress can be made.
It seems like focusing on one primary activity within a shorter period makes for the most effective lessons. Just shortening a standard, 70 minute lesson in order to fit into a reduced class period either means not getting to every part of the lesson plan, or, alternatively, moving too quickly. Conversely, if the activity for a shorter period is too basic, it lends itself towards apathy among students. This is what I saw most often in the week of MAP testing. The activities students were doing in classes seemed irrelevant to them and so they didn’t engage fully.
This feeling of apathy pervades classes with shorter periods and is another hurdle that must be overcome if we intend to keep this method of accommodating half days. Put eloquently by a student interviewed for this article: “I normally want to sleep during all of my classes, but only during 40 minute periods do I feel like I actually could.”
While I believe that the new 40 minute system was implemented with good intentions, in its current state, it is doing more harm than good. Being that political assassination is no longer a contemporary practice, there must either be more work put into ensuring that teachers can create valuable, engaging, enriching, and meaningful 40 minute classes, or the model for how ASB deals with shortened school days must be changed, once again.2