TEACHSOC: Re: 8:00 Classes and other hardy perennials

[Del Thomas Ph. D.]

Hi,  I have wondered why over the years we as sociologists have provided very little sociological analysis of these problems before we offer solutions.  I want to support Marty's and others recognize that the teen age students have very little choice regarding class time. They seem to be more aware of the body clock science than the colleges.  Maybe?  The fact is that most 8:00am classes are populated by first year students who had little choice.   Farber author of S.....A.......N......   Documented  the factory nature of schools (below).  He was not alone. The DOE Interagency Technology Task Force's summary of the situation links that problem to our not adapting to a flood of technological advances made during the last half of this century. "We are experiencing a scientific and technological revolution of unprecedented proportions.  Everywhere we look, technology is changing the way we work and live.  Everywhere, that is, but in our classrooms.  In an information age society we have factory era schools."   As many of have seen we now have schools that are still factories.... but now electronic factories.  "So Mr. Farber conceived of school as a factory – a monolithic enterprise which moulded students into a standard form – and that conception is not without validity as a conception of the school system of the 1960s. However, not only was the society of the 1960s a dying society, the school system of the 1960s was a dying school system." From The Student as Shopper by Wentworth Sutton,assistant vice-principal, Mitchell Hepburn Collegiate Institute, Don Mills, and president emeritus, Semiologico-Hermeneutic Institute of Toronto. http://www.newimprovedhead.com/farber.htm Del