One of the first associations people make with school is the grand, picturesque school-bell which adorns the stereotypical school building. Although the school day is still beginning with a bell, it seems that the bells have their own case of senioritis— as they have been skipping class, and only sounding again at the end of lunches.
Why has this change suddenly occurred? Skyline Principal Lisa Hechtman believes that the bells are altogether detrimental to students’ learning, as bells sounding that only concern some students (as in 3rd and 4th period due to lunch) serve as distractions.
In a Skyline E-News dated August 20th, Hechtman states that, “we already know that you are well versed in our daily schedules and don’t need this Pavlovian direction.” Aside from this rather degrading comparison of America’s soon-to-be adult generation to mindless dogs that only behave according to sensational cues (Pavlov’s Dog), this claim is baseless.
At the most visible level, the bells are more of a convenience than anything else; although several students will have the schedules deep within their minds by the end of the year, it is a burden to require all students to memorize the schedules, especially with the highly erratic ones which occur on days with assemblies and other out of the ordinary occasions.
Liberty Bell—next stop: Skyline High School?
By this stage in a student’s life, most teachers no longer expect their students to memorize near meaningless dates in history class, or word-for-word definitions in English class, dismissing these exercises as tedious and unnecessary. Yet this year, even with the omnipresent burden of construction, we are expected to memorize the bell schedule as well.
Even if a student memorizes all of the schedules, the student is still powerless to enforce correct class times as the bells used to regulate. Most of the teachers themselves do not know what time class gets out without the bells, and only a few of them have the schedules posted in a visible location. Through the first week and a half of school, I have not gone a single day without getting out of a class late due to a teacher being oblivious as to when the class ends.
If anything, this is detrimental to student learning, as teachers can not properly adapt their lesson plans according to the amount of time they have left in class if they do not know when the period ends. In several instances, my instructors have continued on with their lesson well through and past the time when the bell should have rung, yet still not finishing the lecture they had prepared which the students needed for the night’s homework.
When such an instance does occur, the students are thrust into a thoroughly awkward situation, as it is considered incredibly rude, by the majority of students and teachers alike, to pack up one’s books and binders, and leave while the instructor is still lecturing, even if the class has already “ended.” This is often the last resort for students, but an action that must be pursued by even the most respectful pupils, as the commute between portables 7-10 (aptly named South Campus due to its distinct separation from the rest of the school) and Central Campus is a three minute walk: leaving students with only two minutes to traverse the overcrowded hallways to their next class.
Of course, bells to signal the end of class would resolve this issue in a manner that would not leave the instructor feeling disrespected and unappreciated, nor the student in a frantic dash across multiple lanes of traffic to make their next class.
If one can imagine the lack of bells regulating class times as a tyrannical wall dividing a nation in half, then I would like to borrow the words of Ronald Reagan:
Tear down this wall.
Comments
Going along with the lecture example, it’s very distracting for the burden of clock-watching to be on the students when previously the computer would do that for us. Now I find myself in the last 10 minutes of class checking the clock more frequently (if I even know when the period ends). Not because the class itself is necessarily boring, but because I don’t want to cut into my passing time by mistake. It removes me from my classwork for a greater amount of time, which is definitely counterproductive to learning.
Fun Fact: Mr. Ko, not knowing the new schedule, accidentally let us out five minutes late to lunch yesterday. It probably won’t happen again, but it never had to happen at all. Bring back the bells, please.
Somebody should start a petition to get the bells back.
Great idea — if you would like to take credit share your name. The Plateau Times is planning on doing a full investigation.
Well, credit is always good, but it’s not like petitioning is a particularly revolutionary idea. I’m willing to start the petition myself, but I’m no good with bureaucracy and haven’t the slightest idea of how to go about doing it.
I dont get it- It is so easy for a person just to simply touch a button to signal the bells. This would happen roughly every hour, so why can’t it be done manually? Even in previous years, where the computer was on a set “schedule,” the bells still behaved quite erratically at times. There are always at least 2 people in the front office, so is it such a burden for one of them to push a single button?
They don’t want to cause trouble for the Construction people, because for them, bells are danger signals… or so I heard from Hechtman…
Well, the bells don’t have to be “belly.” They could always be a chime noise, or something of the sort. Like what they have at BLMS.
Aseem, I’d argue those are worse. There was nothing wrong with the bells at Skyline, and because of the lack of them I was tardy for my Theatre class on Wednesday because I didn’t know when to leave Bio.
Thanks. I don’t really care much though because I don’t think the sub reported it.