Peter Drucker, father of modern management said: in organizations, there should be no meetings unless necessary. I said: at schools, there should be no classes unless necessary. Peter Drucker said, meetings are exceptions rather than the rules. One either has meetings or one works. The ideal organization needs no meetings. I said, classes are the exceptions rather than the rules. For one either attend classes or one learns. The ideal education needs no classes and timetables. > "Meetings are by definition a concession to deficient organization for one either meets or one works. One cannot do both at the same time. In an ideally designed structure (which in a changing world is of course only a dream) there would be no meetings. Everybody would know what he needs to know to do his job. Everyone would have the resources available to him to do his job." --- Timetables normalize class attendence not learning. Stand at the school gate and watch the studetns file in -- everything looks perfectly justified. Whether learnig happens is another story; showing up feels righteous. Timetables prizes procedure & process (showing up in classes) over actual results (whether one learned someting or not). For students, the danger is forgetting why they're in class at all -- Which unit are we on? What’s the ultimate goal of this course? What big question are we exploring? What skill should I walk away with? Don't care -- showing up and half-listening is enough. Class itself replaces learning as the objective; everything feels like a box to tick. For teachers, the danger is pretending they are using the class time effectively. Teachers drum up busywork (dicussions, reflections, presentation, etc.) when there’s nothing really left to learn and teach. Content that could have been delivered whole gets chopped into bite-sized periods to fit the schedule. Knowledge that could have been explained more easily doesn't, because what to do with the time saved any way? --- Stduents: Don't come to this class unless you are so eager to learn, but cannot learn on your own. Don't come to this class unless this class offers you something unique and valuable. Teachers: Don't fill in the content of each class just for the sake of doing something. You don't have a class unless you have something really necessary to tell, to teach, or to share. For teachers and students the same -- No classes unless necessary. --- Envision an almost utopian alternative: no timetable or class schedule, just a master list of what to be leanred and competencies to be gained by semeter's end. Compulsory final exam, what happens before is your freedom. The school offers teachers, labs, libraries, resources -- it's up to you how to use them and go with your own pace. This is a results-first model that forces students to figure out what to study, how to study, why to study, and what it all means. The goals are crystal-clear, the responsibility squarely on their shoulders—outcomes drive the process. We wonder why kids lack strategic vision and and big-picture thinking. But how can that mindset grow in learners who march to a bell schedule every day? --- Peter Durcker said, efforts only exist within an organization, while results are only found outside organization. Similarly, within a school there are only the green "present" ticks; all true learning can only be found outside classes. ## Back Log You don't fill in the content of each class just to make sure there is something to talk about or do during a class. You don't have a class unless you have something really necessary to tell, to inform, to learn, or to teach. 课表的安排让上课显得理所当然，导致有时候不管有没有实质的内容，学生和老师都觉得去教室是天经地义。课表这样的安排看起来井井有条，学生都有地方去，但其实背后是大量的时间浪费与主动性的磨灭。学生去上课，但很多时候不期望学到什么，也不知道自己这节课是为什么过去的，上课本身代替了学习成为了目的，一切都像理所当然地完成任务一样。 假想，如果没有固定的课时安排，而只有一个这个学期要学什么的一个清单，然后学生和老师可以自由安排上课时间、地点、进度，只要保证在学期结束之前把该学的都学完了就行。这样的话学生有一个清晰的预期和目的感，知道自己这学期是要干什么的，并可以按照自己的节奏灵活自主安排学习的进度 -- 自己为自己负责，以目标为导向。 [[The constant interruption by bells and segmented schedules teaches students not to invest deeply in any task, as nothing is ever truly finished]]