Time Keeps On Slipping, Slipping, Into the Future...Unless You Teach. Then Not One of the Clocks Works Correctly in the Building.

I'm not the first to write such a post and I definitely will not be the last. I'm having flashbacks to my K-12 teaching days when kids were always late from a particular math room because the teacher always kept them over the period's time. Of course, she blamed it on clocks, but we had them all synched. We were in good shape, but her mathematical skills never transferred to time-telling. Our faculty grew accustomed that students from a particular math course would always be five-minutes late, no matter how many ways we tried to get the behavior adjusted. 

We just went with it. 

Now, I've been in many high schools where every clock in every room is at a different time. It fascinates me that a building built on factory-efficiency and data-paranoia, never addresses the fact that there are so many times being named throughout the day. We want kids to be responsible, but our clocks are all #@$#$@ up. 

This, however, is not just a K-12 thing.

Exhibit A. Fairfield University. They put digital clocks throughout all the buildings and in all the hallways. Unlike K-12 schools, families invest astronomical amounts of money to give their lovelies and geniuses a chance in the world. All the loans, all the financial aid, and all the savings, however, can not get a school institution to work out the issue of time. This is ironic, however, as we are always telling our students how time is of the essence, and efficiency is success. 

Unless you teach. The entire enterprise seems to make educators look like fools. Not a single clock matches ever, and everyone gets confused, perplexed, and humored by the insanity. Does anybody ever really know what time it is? Does anybody ever really care?

On Wednesdays, I know I finish teaching at 9:15 p.m. - and with student questions and inquiries, I'm usually out of the room by 9:30. I then go to my office to pack up, head to my car, and drive home, knowing I can make it by 10 p.m. if I-95 is flowing (which it wasn't last night, so I took back roads). Ah, but on the way out, I took pictures of the two clocks displayed before the parking lot. It was 9:27. I was the only car in the parking lot (during the day, there tends to be more). And both these clocks were absolutely wrong. 

No wonder I leave work so exhausted. And now I'm wondering if we should work with elementary education faculty to work with administrators and technicians on how to tell time. I do know the church bells ring on the hour, usually at the exact right time. Now, if only we can get the buildings in synch with the secrets they seem to know we'll be all set..

And just like that I'm filing this in a folder of "Universals Needing to be Addressed."