The sounds of students shutting laptops, shuffling papers, and zipping up their bags fill classrooms, warning everyone that the class is about to end. But, as people often say, students are saved by the…. BRIIIING BRIIIIIIING BRINGNGGH! Any students who were engaged in their work noticeably flinch.
For a couple of weeks in November, the bells were periodically silent. In my opinion, whenever the bells are off, school is more peaceful. I imagine this has been caused, as it often is, by technical difficulties, but regardless, it made me think. It didn’t seem to cause many issues not to have the bells or PA system. As a neurodivergent with fairly intense sensory issues that leave me with a hatred of most loud noises, especially sudden and shrill ones, the lack of bells was peaceful. I found myself less stressed and less overwhelmed, and overstimulated. So why not ditch the bells? After all, what function are they really serving, except for annoying students and teachers and confusing more than they clarify?
The place we have to start is a brief history of the bells. You’ve likely heard that bells were introduced to schools to make them more like factories. Well, that probably isn’t true. While bells were used in both places, that doesn’t necessarily mean the factory system is why they ended up in classrooms. So, were the bells added to condition students into becoming factory workers? Likely not. But they are intended to regiment students’ days and impose an inflexible schedule that places punctuality and tradition over our well-being and learning.
For anyone who knows me, the position I’m advocating for may come as a surprise. After all, I’m consistently late to everything. Wouldn’t I want the bells? While I would understand that, it is in fact the opposite. After all, if the bells were a helpful structure, wouldn’t they have fixed my persistent unpunctuality by now? They haven’t so far. My fashionable lateness largely hinges on my ADHD. It contributes to time blindness, and I’ve been relying on my watch for years because of it. About four weeks ago, though, it got out of sync, and I, not willing or able to do the ten-minute task at that moment, never fixed it. This led me to inadvertently discover that I don’t particularly need my watch. My laptop, my phone if it’s not during school, and my friends have provided such a solid external system, it isn’t necessary. If that’s true, especially for someone with my track record, why would school bells be needed?
Beyond this personal angle, schools constantly claim to be preparing students for ‘the real world’, but there are few professions that feature an obnoxious reminder every time you need to switch between tasks. In fact, that’s not how the “real world” works at all, i.e., tasks regiments hour by hour with very little choice day-to-day isn’t how the workforce generally works. On top of supposedly preparing students for this mythical “real world”, the bells put no faith in the students, instead assuming that they can’t keep track of their own schedules. Ironic, considering many of us are in college-level classes and many others are within just a few short years of voting in national elections. By not trusting high school students, nearly legal adults, to manage their own time in very basic ways, grades 9-12, and specifically their bells, set students up for failure. An assistant principal at one bell-less school said that, “In the adult world, you’re expected to know what time it is and be on time. That culture of independence and self-guidance and advocacy for your own time is what we’re trying to encourage here.” Independence and preparation are some of the core tenets of ACC, so a no-bell system would fit perfectly.
One of the issues with punctuality at school is not just telling the time, but also knowing the schedule… which I must admit I do not personally. With every class denoted by this scheduled cacophony, students are peeved and don’t learn their actual schedules. Worse still are the lunch bells, going off in the middle of classes, leading people to wonder if class is over already, and for teachers to declare ‘you have 5 minutes left’ (when in fact the class will continue for thirty). If there were digital clocks distributed out to classrooms and the schedule was posted near them, it would fix a lot.
This is also an accessibility issue. For students who experience overstimulation, the bells are a daily problem and may be a source of physical and emotional discomfort. Even if a student doesn’t immediately get upset at the sound of the bells, many become gradually more annoyed as the day and week wear on. And U.S. schools on a bell schedule feature around 16 bells per day at least! That’s a lot of frustration building up day in and day out.
In California and beyond, many U.S. schools have already removed their bell systems and say that students can get where they’re going just fine. It increases flexibility, which in turn allows for curiosity, and students being able to spend extra time working on things they’re passionate about. These schools have also found that staff and students are less stressed, and school is more pleasant and less strict for everyone. One problem people may mention is how some teachers may continue past the end of their classes without bells. However, schools have found this to be a non-issue, with the hallway noise alerting students and teachers alike that classes have ended. Another issue could be days with irregular schedules, but that can be solved by having the bells ring as they do now on days with irregular schedules.
The school bells are distracting, very overstimulating, and ultimately pointless. They make school unpleasant and prioritize strictness over students’ well-being. It also makes it that much harder for students to master the difficult skills of time management. ACC should ditch the bells and embrace a more flexible schedule with less stress and more opportunities for growth.
