As I write, I am sitting in my car outside a music studio where my daughter is taking ukulele lessons. There is an hour until she's done, which gives me an hour of time to use. How should I use that time? What should be done right now?
Playing a game on my phone would be a waste of time. That isn't necessary right now - it shouldn't be done. Knowing that I had this time ahead of me, I actually made the decision that I would not play games while waiting. There is work I could have done, but I try to use as much time as I can for family matters and personal projects. So instead, of leveling up in Disney Tsum Tsum, I've chosen to write a blog post.
But couldn't that also be a waste of my time? Shouldn't I also be doing something else? Who determines what I should and shouldn't do?
Our default answer here is probably work-related. I could use this time for grading papers, or making lesson plans for next week. Typically, I do that on Sundays. I could also use this time to catch up on emails, reading, working on a project, anything really. No matter what I choose to spending time on, any of those activities could be time well spent, or a complete waste of that time. It is all a matter of perspective.
This leads me to turn attention back to school. As a theatre teacher, I often have students who see my class as a waste of their time. I could provide arguments and evidence of why it is not, but from their perspective, those arguments don't matter much. Theatre class, or gym class, or art class, or math class, or any class can be perceived as a waste of their time. How many times do teachers hear "when will I ever use this in life?"... how many times have we asked that question ourselves? Why? Any of those subjects have use. They are in the curriculum for a reason. It goes back to perspective - or perhaps more specifically - goals.
What is the goal of a 7th grade student? What is the goal of 11th grade student? A basic answer could be: "to do well in school". If that is the case, we might argue that a student seeking to do well in school should apply themselves equally in every subject and every assignment - anything that has to do with school should be the focus of "doing well". But that doesn't happen. We all have our own interests and perspectives that make it virtually impossible to approach everything with equal interest and seriousness. Perhaps then it becomes more important to ask what does "doing well" mean? How do we define "well"? That can't possibly be the same for each person, either.
Sometimes I wonder what would happen if individual students had personal goals for the year ahead. For example, the 7th grade student may want something general like "to do well" with the added goal of identifying the subjects and fields that they are most passionate about. This may help further down the road when specializing: choosing electives, or narrowing down potential college and career plans. The 11th grade student may then have more specific goals focused on college applications and majors that mean "doing well" in the classes that will provide the best opportunity to achieve those goals.
What is emerging here is a more individualized, and specialized, approach to education that reaches beyond simply "doing well". Now students are reaching for specific goals; taking specific action. I wonder how a change like that would not only alter education but also improve student engagement across-the-board. I also wonder what would be lost in such a shift.
I don't have answers here. Nor am I making any strong suggestions or recommendations. This is a line of thought about what is or is not a "waste of time". Maybe the answer to that question is "whatever does not further our goals", but even then is it possible to have a clear view of the unknown future from a uncertain today?
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