Every year about this time I look forward to a bit of family fun during a Christmas or Thanksgiving break. If there is enough snow by Thanksgiving, the family will add skiing to the holiday tradition of selecting the best tree in the forest as a Christmas tree. If there isn't enough snow by Thanksgiving, there usually is by Christmas, and we start to look at the calendar for good ski dates as our skis rattle in the garage.
It is the calendar that complicates things. I work at Snow College, which is on the quarter system. My son and his wife teach in Washington County, which, like all the public schools in Utah, is on a semester system. But that semester system doesn't quite seem to match the semester system of my Manti High School kids who start late to accommodate a big deal in Sanpete County, the County Fair. Neither does the Washington County semester of the South Sanpete semester match the semester of my son-in-law at Brigham Young
University.The closest calendar match for me is with my daughter at the U. of U., and she skis so much better than I that I'm better off buying her and my wife lift passes and reading a good book.
Now wouldn't it be better if all these schools could coordinate schedules so that the Baker family could vacation together? The answer is unequivocal. No! It isn't that I don't enjoy skiing with the family; it's that our schools each serve unique students that are best served by a system that allows each school to respond to particular needs.
I don't pretend to speak for all the faculty at Snow College who should make this decision. I certainly don't speak for the faculty of Utah State University, who last year examined the problem and stayed on a quarter system. I don't speak for my president at Snow, who will probably take a different position from mine but will clearly respect my ideas. What I do support is the idea that this is a faculty decision that is best made at each institution. We are the ones who teach the classes. I sense an arrogant tone in my last sentence and don't intend arrogance. I just intend to teach on a calendar where I can do my best work.
Perhaps I can help people who would standardize the school calendar in Utah by describing the students I teach. Keep in mind that these are very different from the nontraditional students of the large two-year colleges along the Wasatch Front and very different from university students. Many of my students at Snow come from rural and small high schools where the curriculum is not as rich as it is in the large urban high schools. They have not had as many opportunities to take advanced writing courses, or advanced science courses with labs, or advanced mathematics classes. Yet they come with a great work
ethic. Many students come to Snow a bit undecided about a future college major or career. Many are intimidated by the large colleges and universities and want a place where exploration is less intimidating.
Some haven't even decided whether or not they are on a vocational or transfer track. Because they are undecided they want to experiment a bit, something a quarter system allows.
Students I teach at Snow often have a difficult time getting the courses they want. Because we are a small school, there are many courses that are taught at only one time during the quarter. Some are only taught once each
year. On a semester calendar, students would take four sets of courses to graduate in two years. On the existing quarter system, students take six sets of classes for graduation. It is obvious that having more sets of classes allows students to explore options, catch up on prerequisites, and take courses that we can't afford to offer every quarter. It may be that a semester system at Snow would slow students down and that fewer would graduate in two
years. If Snow attracted students who were decided on majors, had filled all prerequisites for the major, and could get all the courses they need each term, then a semester calendar would allow them to dig deeper by spending more time in a particular course.
Perhaps the universities that attract a different population could better serve that population with a semester calendar. The point is that each institution should be free to decide how to best serve students and the people who have the responsibility to teach the students have the best information to make the decision. Administrators, legislatures, and the public are welcome to participate in the debate. I expect that colleagues at Snow will challenge my opinion on this matter. The debate is good for us if we remember that the goal is the best possible education for the students we serve. All I ask is that when I tell someone that I can do a better job for the students I teach on a 10-week quarter than on a 15-week semester, that I am believed.
Don't tell me that I would do a better job on a semester calendar unless you have taught my classes.
Now I may not win this argument. I may be teaching on a semester system one day and have to adjust. That will be fine with me if the decision is made by colleagues who argue fairly, and decide the issue according to the particular needs of Snow College. That is how education works. The calendar is just another idea and ideas are the currency of the profession. If an idea is rejected by peer review, whether an idea to change the calendar, an idea that cold fusion is fact, or an idea that mechanical hearts are viable options, it is rejected by peers, the people who are in the best position to judge. And that's how is should be. Decisions are best made at the lowest possible level so that diversity is preserved and each institution is free to teach the way it can teach best.