Not that big on deadlines

“It seems like you’re not that big on deadlines.”

“What I am big on is learning. If that means we have to bend some deadlines, I’m ok with that.”

I know the argument. We have to teach kids to be responsible. To manage their time. To meet deadlines, like in the real world.

But learning isn’t like paying your rent on time, or renewing your driver’s license, or using a coupon before it expires.  Those things, understandably, have deadlines. And other things in their lives will teach kids how to abide by them when necessary. I have other things to teach.

And learning takes as much time as it takes.

Imagine if we told our toddlers, “If you aren’t up and walking by 13 months, that’s it. You get a zero on walking and we’re moving on to something else.”

Deadlines, more than being instructive, are expedients for teachers. And while they may add some sense of urgency to getting an assignment done, sometimes life intervenes. Maybe somebody in the family is sick. Or maybe the family has lost their home. Or maybe a brother is battling an opioid addiction.  Sometimes other things have more urgency than a deadline.

And sometimes, the learning just hasn’t kicked in yet.

So if I give an assignment and I set the due date for Friday - say a rhetorical analysis of an essay by Margaret Fuller - most of my students will have it in on Friday (probably pretty close to midnight). Some will email me with some questions on things they don’t understand, which they didn’t realize until they sat down to write. One will unexpectedly have to visit a sick grandfather right after school. A few won’t have finished the book because they had 3 other big projects to do. Some will have spent every day after school at track practice and then gone off to work until 10 or 11 p.m. to earn money for college. One or two will say they tried to do what I asked, but they thought of another way that worked better for them and so they got a late start and can they turn it in on Monday. And some will fall asleep while they are writing and wake up early Saturday, finish writing and submit.

I’m ok with all of that. I share my classroom with 80 individual human beings, not 80 paper clips in a box ready to be dispersed as I see fit. Of course I would rather they didn't leave things till the last minute. But I encourage students to put their full effort into learning or creating something late rather than not doing it at all. I craft all of my assignments to have valuable learning outcomes. They don't become less valuable after midnight on the due date, regardless of the reason they are late.

I’m also ok with revising everything. That’s where the growth really happens. You got a 50 and want to try again? Absolutely. And again? Yes. In life I am generally a person of infinite chances - chances to know better and do better. Why wouldn’t I offer that to kids learning how to engage with the world through literature and rhetoric? Especially when I often benefit from that kind of  generosity of spirit from others (including colleagues and students).     

Learning doesn’t conform to due dates. Toddlers give us the model. They learn when they are ready. They aren’t big on deadlines.

Neither am I.

***I write this in full recognition of the fact that we have 2 weeks of school left, and are seemingly approaching a hard and fast deadline. But we know that there will be students who come in over the summer to finish the business of this year. I’m ok with that.  

***Also, I pay my rent on time. My driver's license expires in August - I will renew it on time. But I usually remember any coupons I have the day after they expire. (Sometimes vendors still accept them. Sometimes the real world is more kind than school.)