“Stolen Cars Crashed into School, Bell”

John Boller is a mathematics professor at the University of Chicago who works with Chicago public school teachers to support greater depth and authenticity in their mathematics teaching. He is working with the Chicago Public Schools Office of Academic Enhancement and with the Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE) at Swift and Thorp schools through a U.S. Department of Education grant to integrate the arts with rigorous mathematics instruction. He conducts his wonderful seminars for the participating teachers and artists at the schools themselves, where he is often startled by the ringing of the passing bell, which makes the teachers and artists laugh. “Sorry,” he says. “We don’t have bell schedules at the university.”
What is the origin of bell schedules and time limited classroom periods? There is probably some connection to the “Carnegie Unit” (a defined number of contact hours for attaining credit in a subject, advocated for by the Carnegie Foundation in the early 1900’s), to concepts of “seat time” (learning measured by the duration of time that students’ butts remain in their desk seats), and to the “time and motion” studies developed for business efficiency in the 1920’s (popularized through the novel “Cheaper by the Dozen”). In a time of information technology based distance learning and of advocacy for project based learning and differentiated instruction, the dominance of bell schedules is beginning to be questioned.
Bells have held a variety of iconic meanings in American schools and communities. The enduring stereotype of the hand held bell rung by the teacher is now pretty much relegated to clip-art. The classic, jarring electronic passing bell of the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s, with its wickedly vibrating clapper, has been largely replaced by time tones sounded over an intercom. At Northside College Preparatory High School in Chicago, the late, beloved educator Cedric Hampton instituted the playing of selections from world music as a more humane alternative to intercom buzz tones.
National Public Radio ran a chilling piece on the un-discussed historic role of the “curfew bell”. At 10 P.M., when the bell rang out, all African Americans were to be out of town, or face incarceration. The reporter traveled to towns throughout the U.S. that continue to ring curfew, and it was fascinating, when she asked local residents about the purpose of curfew bells (a purpose that was enforced in many towns until a few short decades ago) to listen to embarrassed Americans circling around their secret common knowledge. The radio report included recordings of these bells, disturbing in their intermingling of ringing tones with undiminished sinister meaning.
We have ambivalent feelings about those bells that determine our lives. Here is a news story that vividly captures the depth of that ambivalence:
HOBART, Ind., Feb. 19, 2008 (UPI) - Police in Hobart, Ind. said two stolen cars were found crashed into the entrance of a local high school and a historic bell mounted outside the building. Authorities said a Buick Regal was found surrounded by the remains of the bell and a Hyundai Sonata was found several feet into the front hallway of Hobart High School, the Gary (Ind.) Post-Tribune reported Tuesday. "Whoever did this, it was completely deliberate. They weren't just driving down the road," said police spokesman Lt. Steve Houck. Security cameras at the school recorded the vandals crashing into the north entrance twice before they were able to break through the metal and glass doorway. Houck said both cars had previously been reported stolen. "It's very disappointing that someone would be so reckless as to damage anything at the school," Principal David Spitzer said.
If a bell shatters in a school entranceway, and nobody hears it, does it still ring?

Arnold Aprill
Founding and Creative Director
Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE)
www.capeweb.org