The Trouble with Timetables

The Trouble with Timetables

 Over the course of my 6 years in the education system. I learned a few things. But there is one learning point that will stay in my heart forever. That is the ineffectiveness of Timetables. The ones used in schools which dictate exactly how your time is spent for about half of your day, 5 days a week. So in this article, I’m going to explain the ineffectiveness of timetables and two solutions to replace it. I will call my solutions the Homework Model (HM) and the Subject-Orientated Timetable (SOT). So let’s start with why the current version of a timetable sucks. (Disclaimer: Both solutions proposed have not been tested or experimented in any way at all)

The Ineffectiveness of the Timetable 

It’s unclear how the current version of the Timetable was invented but it was probably around the time railways came about. When you had trains, you needed timetables to dictate what time trains ran. This, along with the evolution of time, created the first versions of the timetable. Then some genius probably came along and implemented this in schools and this eventually spread to literally every corner of our planet. Now, most schools use timetables to dictate exactly how time is spent and we use bells to dictate a movement in our timetable. This gets to our first problem

1. Time is a Flow. Not Blocks in a schedule. - Let’s use History as an example. When we think about History, we usually think about it in chapters. Like a World War 2 and World War 1. When in fact, History is a flow. Millions lived through both world wars some even saw the Moon Landing and the collapse of the Berlin Wall. It’s a timeline, not chapters. We treat History like the two World Wars are happening in different worlds. This is just like time. In schools, we use timetables which treat time as 30-minute blocks known as periods. Time should flow like water, constantly in motion and we should treat it like that.

2. Time is a Measurement, not a Rule - In schools, we treat Time as a rule. If you are given an assignment and you have a period (30-minutes) to finish it and you don’t. That’s homework! That’s not what Time is invented for. Time is a measurement used to track. Like Distance, Area, Volume and Weight. It shouldn’t be treated as a rule for change. But a measurement for change. I will explain more about this later…

3. We orientate Time before Learning - Thanks to Timetables, we treat learning as a direct dictation of Time. As mentioned, Time is a measurement. And we should treat it as that. But because we treat it as a Rule, it affects many things we do every single day and every single day. As such, we need learning and studies to dictate itself and time. My second solution, Subject-Oriented Timetable (SOT) tries to go around this error as much as possible 

4. Timetables does NOT prioritize Productivity - My most controversial reason. That’s right! You’d think that Timetables were made to prioritize Productivity among the masses. But no. To explain, the most basic, simple, easy-to-understand definition of Productivity is to do as much stuff in as little time. Maximum workload, minimum time. So you might think that Timetables do an amazing job at that. Well yes, but no. Timetables are great at the minimum time part, not so great at the maximum workload part. Think of all the wasted time you spend in class gazing out the window, chattering, wandering and being distracted. But there’s another way to look at productivity, which is as a flow (slightly more abstract but just ride with it) A wave and sudden gush in your momentum can trigger the maximum workload, minimum time model. But in a prison like school (well, I’m getting canceled), you rarely get this sort of gush ever. That’s why Home-Based Learning is so…actually that may be a topic for another time. 

I know I am sort of beating up Timetables here but there is one thing that Timetables are good at which I must commend. I present the one reason why I like Timetables.

The Effectiveness of the Timetable 

1. Parkinson’s Law - If you don’t know this, Parkinson’s Law is basically if we allocate x amount of time to z , the brain typically fills z within x. So if I allocate 2 hours to writing this article, the brain typically tells my body to write this article within 2 hours. This model works perfectly with a timetable and I believe that this model makes timetables work. That way, our body keeps to this type of schedule. Therefore, despite all the discredit I give to Timetables, Parkinson’s Law comes in and save this! But now I want to explain a bit more on how we can change the Timetable to help us with our 4 disadvantages while continuing with the current advantage. 

The Homework Model (HM)

The principle behind HM is to separate the classwork from the class. Students will be given the same amount of time in school as usual but between lessons, students will be given a free period of around 30-45 minutes. During this period, students can head to tables in the canteen or those in class and collaborate in groups for group projects or individually to complete homework. So here are some advantages of this method of scheduling in school. While this doesn’t solve the idea of time blocking and the orientation of learning, it does solve the ‘Time is a Measurement’ rule and priorities productivity. See in the eyes of a student, nothing is better than going home knowing there is no homework left to do.

Subject-Orientated Timetable (SOT)

The principle behind SOT is for subjects to dictate time rather than the other way around. So every day upon heading to school, there are only two or three subjects. One main subject like Math, Science, English and two other subjects like Physical Education (PE) and Art. While this once again doesn’t solve the time blocking problem, it solves the productivity point as teachers now have a lot more time rather than a few hours so there is a decreased in concern towards time. 

Conclusion

Due to everyone’s favourite excuse, money, my idea will probably not be implemented or experimented but if you are reading this, I hope you understand a bit more about Timetables and why they are ineffective. But to end off this article, I’d like to give a quick few sentences about the situation in Afghanistan.

It’s hard to summarise the situation in Afghanistan over the past few days. The Taliban has taken over the country in just a week and thousands are left in a country now suddenly in ruins. It feels like 20 or so years of progress made by the United States and those who have supported the reconstruction of Afghanistan has just faded away in a simple week. As with Myanmar In February, I will stand by not writing an article towards the current situation in Afghanistan and I am trying to avoid being glued to the television as with Myanmar.

“Sometimes when the World is against you, you just have to keep going against it”

Happy Reading!

Farren’s Personal Corner: https://farrenpersonalcorner.blogspot.com/

History Corner: https://dhistorycorner.blogspot.com/