The Bell Can't Save You Now

Morgan Brown, Assistant Deputy Secretary
Office of Innovation and Improvement
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20202

Dear Mr. Brown:

    I just learned that some schools in the Boston area are doing something that would certainly fall into the category of “Innovation.” A few schools are experimenting with alternatives to the school bell. Some have tried music as cues, but I imagine that reminds some teens of the cell phones they were made to leave at home. Silence, I think, is the best choice.
    The bell is necessary for wrangling elementary school kids who mill in and out of buildings for recess and lunch, and it may still be the best solution in middle school, but in high school it does make sense to prepare students for the “real world” in which they will be expected to show up for work or a college class all on their own.
    Some teachers apparently have complained that students clockwatch for the last ten minutes of class when there’s no bell. From what I remember of high school, kids do this anyway, and also begin the loud process of packing everything up to go five minutes before the bell. Many of my teachers demonstrated that the bell could not override their authority and dismissed classes after the whistle had long since blown. The bell, I believe, is indeed obsolete. It never occurred to me to get rid of it, but now that some are, I realize that it makes perfect sense. The bell should have been retired long ago.

Truly,

Liz Mann