New Roads: The Ideal School Day

Getting a B in Chemistry is okay. Earning a C-plus in Western Civ is fine. Blanking out on a French quiz is perfectly normal.

Not everybody does something perfectly. I am a teacher and I can lose track of the number of times kids go neurotic over their perceived "failures" (which amounts to something like an 85 on their math quiz). 

Now I don't know how to get kids to stop the blitheringly facepalm-worthy moments of perceived hopelessness that they absolutely can't carry into adulthood (which at this rate might end up being some point in their mid-30s). But I'd wager slowing down the high school day is a start. How? I'll tell you.

Yes, it's that simple. I'll. Tell. You. Do I consider this idea important? Let me offer this: I am delaying doing my evening reading in Stephen Neill's Anglicanism and D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones' Preaching and Preachers to do this.

Start the school day at 7:55. If you are at a religious school, begin with a brief meditation on Scripture. If at a public school, read a poem or something. Focus your students and get them to see there's more to life than their immediate worries. Five minutes of this. It's critical.

First period goes from 8:00-8:45. Five minute passing period and second class kicks off at 8:50, lasting until 9:40.

Third period, you say? Not a chance.

9:40 begins mid-morning break. Supervise it, okay (school insurance companies don't need to worry), but give students an official recess. Yes, call it recess. With pride. Advertise that in your PR materials! Let students walk or jog around the track in the football stadium. Watch some guys play a game of half-court basketball (and join in with them!). If there's snow on the ground, what say a snowball fight? Grab a mid-morning snack with the kids who are going through hard times. Use the break to confront that bully and let him or her know they can be better. Above all, this time needs to revive kids and energize them.

That means your third and fourth period slots (10:10-10:55 and 11:00-11:45, respectively) will be a lot more productive in teaching and learning than if you load students from period to period in packed, dreary herds.

Lunch. Thirty-five minutes. I will not negotiate a minute less. Students get to stop things twenty minutes in and do school announcements. Go crazy, folks, go crazy.

Bell rings at 12:20 to signal students to fifth period at 12:25, and sixth period begins at 1:15. At 2:00, all things stop for a rotating block of fifteen minutes, depending on the day, in which students "look outward".

Monday: Write a thank-you note to an adult who has influenced you profoundly.
Tuesday: Drop everything and read a book. A real book.
Wednesday: Write a letter urging change. To your state representative. To a political prisoner or persecuted Christian to encourage them.
Thursday: Draw or color something. Anything. Post it in the classroom. Let kids bring their guitars and keyboards in and play some tunes. Awaken the spirit!
Friday: Drop everything and read again. Yes, again.

Seventh period from 2:20-3:05, and that's your day.

Your energetic, yet unhurried, day.

It has to be both. Energetic. Unhurried.

Until we get to trying stuff like that, all the cattle-prodding we do of tomorrow's leaders won't nudge the passion and skills meter to make much of a difference. Let's make the daily schedule a catalyst for intellectual and spiritual intoxication.

I'll talk about the homework hassle next time, but for now, on this time usage issue, I simply ask: Who's with me?