Every Minute in Every Class

This afternoon President Obama addressed the students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, VA with a speech that was intended for all of the students in America from Kindergarten through grade 12. In classic Obama fashion our President delivered an inspirational message with an emphasis on students doing their part to succeed in school. He reminded students that each one of them is good at something and that each one of them has something to offer.

Today, some Massachusetts schools stopped everything to ensure that each student heard President Obama’s message while others limited when and where the speech could be seen and/or heard. At Mahar, students may see the speech at the discretion of their teachers when and where it is pertinent to the subject matter being taught. The decision not to play President Obama’s speech live was a pragmatic one which allows for the continuity of instruction that has been established in our classes to continue. We are also fortunate to have the technology available to copy the speech and play it at any time - when it is appropriate.

The President’s speech was nearly twenty minutes in duration. Twenty minutes in the classroom is really more than twenty minutes when one considers pre-lesson activities, post-lesson follow up and time to transition from one topic to another. Furthermore, the school only has so many televisions and if the whole school were to have to move to larger areas to view the speech, twenty minutes could have quickly become up to an hour out of regularly scheduled classes.

Finally, in the age of “No Child Left Behind” teachers and administrators are being held accountable when students do not achieve certain benchmarks on yearly tests. This is very serious. Our school is required to make “Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)” on the MCAS. In some cases school districts have missed making AYP by one tenth of one point and have been determined to be Schools In Need of Improvement, In Corrective Action, or In Need of Restructuring. Twenty minutes out of a class for one student is 20 minutes. 20 minutes outside of a class for 800 students is 1600 minutes. That 20 minutes could very well be one tenth of one point on an assessment for which teachers are here to prepare our students. Every minute in every class counts.