Vaishali Shah

Q: Do you think high-schoolers should go to school as early as they do?

A: I grew up in a rural area, I liked the mornings, my father made me get up in the morning, and even as a college freshman, I always wanted these early classes. When I was teaching, I would always tell the principal, ‘I don’t want a free period first hour, I want a class!’ Now, that was me talking, but there are others that would say, ‘I’m not very functional until 9:30 a.m. We could have high schools that are more flexible.

Q: How would that work?

A: So, I’m saying, if I am an athlete, or if I have a job, I’ll take early classes, but I also have the ability to say I could start my day at 9 a.m. And then we just have to get our teachers to have different schedules, and not everybody would have the same schedule. So, West high school might open it’s doors as early as 7:30a.m., 7:00 a.m. even, and might have classes till, 5:00 p.m., 6:00 p.m. at night.

Q: Do you think that this idea is realistic?

A: Just like in college, you’re going to have to make some decisions about your schedule. Not everything is going to be told to you. Because when you go to college, you have to make decisions about when you’re going to take your classes and who you’re going to take, you know, and when you’re going to do the lab, and when you’re going to do study groups–I mean, you gotta make those decisions. If you don’t do them, you’re going to be in trouble.

Q: What would be the first step in getting this new system to work?

A: Maybe we need to start trusting people more, start saying, ‘Hey, we trust that more students will know, you know, they have to discipline themselves and we give them a little opportunity to think about their learning outside of here.

Q: How soon do you think this change will be in effect?

A: I think we’re on the verge of some major changes. I’m not going to suggest you’re going to see them, but I hope in the next five to 10 years.