A reader wrote me with a concern about a proposed change to delay the time that school might start on some days, to accommodate meetings of school staff. Her email appears below, with my reply in blue thereafter:
Reader: I feel the public should know what the school board is tiring to pass basically under the table. They would want school to start one hour later every Thursday so the teachers can discuss what has been going on. What are parents with smaller children in school supposed to do as many of them have jobs to go to. I feel the public should be aware of this matter as it will greatly affect some people.
Adams: My views, simply described, on our schools can be found in my post entitled, “On Public Education.” Most especially, I am interested in the ways that a spontaneous order — rather than a engineered solution — can advance substantive learning though interesting, creative possibilities.
The author of this proposal does not matter to me; it’s a bad idea in any event.
The proposal to delay school hours is a poor idea for two principal reasons. First, it visits the effects of administrative and internal workings of the district onto parents. That’s a poor practice — internal needs of an organization should not be visited on customers, clients, or patients. What those within an organization want is sometimes different from what a customer wants or needs. That’s a sign of a poorly focused organization, out of alignment with its customers’ needs.
Second — and far more important — is the stress that a delay like this places on working parents. It’s foolish to think that an employer would be indifferent between a full day off, and eight delays of one hour. I may have control over my schedule, but most people don’t, and they fell the stress of an impatient employer who expects workers to arrive on time, each and every time. A day off is easier to arrange than any number of one-hour delays — and this should be intuitive to those who run our district.
I urge the district to abandon this stress-creating proposal.