Monday, February 09, 2015

Burn it with Fire: Friday classes edition

Here's a graph of attendance over the semester from a large Harvard class:







Students don't come to Friday classes. This is freakin' Harvard. It's much worse at State U.

Plus, 50 minute MWF classes are a hard way to get a lot of material covered. Between the settle down and the throat clearing and the review and the get-away, you got like 35 minutes to do real business.

There's just no need for them. Schools should go MW and T/Th and be done with it. Friday's are for seminars, grading, meeting with your advisees, and having lunch with some colleagues.


2 comments:

Chris Lawrence said...

FYI Angus, the graph didn't come through.

My institution hasn't had regular MWF classes in years, although there is rumor that our recently installed president may decide to bring them back (ugh).

Michael Stack said...

I'm reminded of Landsburg observing that most punts occur on 4th down, so let's get rid of 4th down and only have 3.

Wouldn't Thursday become the new Friday?