Plan calls for no math, no English every five days

By Kyla Candelino

School today is a lot like a ranch. The bell rings, and students all move along to their next class, herd-like. They grumble. They complain. But they go along anyway.

It’s what they’re trained to do. It’s all they know...


Mr. Larkin has introduced to the Board of Education a new and still-forming idea that would break students out of this mindless ritual. Every fifth rotation day regular classes would be replaced by a special day of project-based learning. Students would choose one or possibly two or three classes from a list that falls outside the usual categories of math, English, and so on – classes such as architecture and pottery.

The hope for this day is that students would become more active in their education, more personally involved.

The proposal, which is at least two years away from being put in place, aims to change the student-teacher relationship – at least one day a week. Students would become their own teachers, and teachers would act as advisors. It would get students thinking about what they enjoy, what they’re good at, and what they might want for a career.

“I would love Larkin forever!” sophomore Michelle Lee said.

“Is this a lie?” freshman Marissa Coté asked. “There’s no way this would ever happen.”

The every-fifth-day program has many unknowns, including the number of class periods, class sizes, and how the lunch schedule would be affected.

One possibility is not to have classes at all, and instead have students leave school for internships in the community. Shawsheen Technical High School offers students this chance during their “shop week” days, when students put their education and skills to use at various unpaid positions around Burlington.

The idea is to give students the freedom to make decisions. If students don’t like their classes, Mr. Larkin imagines they could simply switch the following week.

Junior Kelly Spinali called the idea “slightly amazing,” saying, “Giving students more independence would just make school a better learning experience as a whole. It would give us more opportunity to try more things and figure out what we’ll do.”

Sophomores Caroline Brill and Toula Papadopoulos said students would be inspired to work harder every fifth day because they would be working on what they like to do, instead of what the teachers need to teach them. “That would be epic,” Brill said, “because you have time to work on school and time to do stuff you actually want to do.”

Inspiration for the plan comes partly from corporations such as Google, which allows workers 20 percent of their hours as unstructured time to explore new concepts. The freedom is supposed to encourage collaboration and creativity, as well as independent time management. Sticky Notes, at the company 3M, are an example of one of the many inventions thought up during such experimental times.

Some students worry if BHS students will rise to the challenge. “It sounds like a really good idea,” sophomore Justina Hiney said. “I feel like some students would [not] take advantage of it, though. Like, they would always go to the same class or just skip the class instead of taking advantage of it.”

In partial answer to such concerns, Mr. Larkin pointed out, “There’s kids that don’t go to class on a normal day.” But he knows some structure would have to be added to the “unstructured” time. He wants to form a group of students, parents, and teachers who would work to make this happen.

Another possibility for the fifth-day schedule would be to allow for tutoring and extra help opportunities. It would be a big advantage for the athletic students who wouldn’t have to miss a beat either in school or at practice.

“People would have a lot of time to get help from teachers,” Sophomore Nikki Calvino said.

One of the biggest questions teachers have is how they would fit in their course curricula after losing one fifth of the year’s classroom-time. How would they prepare students for their final exams?

Mr. Larkin said he would rather have students learning something they are passionate about than cramming for one test. He said it would have to be worked out how courses and exams might be restructured.

Another question raised is what would happen if a lot of people piled into one class and left another class empty. Mr. Larkin said there would likely be a form of signup, either online or with sheets passed around homeroom.

Students or teachers interested in working on the fifth-day plan should let Mr. Larkin know.