Sunday, January 22, 2012

The Relativity of Time

It has always amazed me how quickly my middle school students can ride an emotional roller coaster from high to low and back again.

--Best friends, worst enemies, and back to friends in the span of a few days.
--They're in love, out of love, and back again within weeks.
--You're their favorite teacher, you're the worst because you called them out on their poor behavior/choices, and by the end of the week, you're once again the best.

This strikes me as a very tiring way to live, but...
Over the last few years, I think I have come up with a explanation for this seemingly odd behavior, and it has helped me to be more understanding of the students in my room.

Basically, I believe, that students and adults experience time differently. Shocking, right?! Seriously though... I haven't run the math, but think about it. One week of time is a higher percentage of a 12 year-old's life than it is for a 30 year-old. Just as a week for that same 30 year-old is larger chunk of his/her life when compared to a 70 year-old. This has led me to construct a (very) rough conversion chart for how my students (12-13 year-old's) experience time compared to me (31 year-old).

The way I see it, one day for my students is equivalent to one week for me, and if they have to wait one week for something to arrive, it is similar to me waiting a month. This view has cleared up a lot of misconceptions that I have had in years past.

For example, I used to get frustrated when I gave an assignment weeks in advance and then watch them wait until the last few days to get it done. I now see that two weeks down the road is in the far distant future from their points-of-view. I also realized that I do the same in my life! While I don't necessarily wait until the deadline if I am given two months (teenage equivalent of two weeks) to get something done, I will usually gather information and then relax a few weeks before getting down to business.

Let that sink in for a bit, and you might come to understand that a kid's use of time, while sometimes confusing to someone older, is not them trying to be defiant or irritating on purpose, but just how they experience time during that stage of life.

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