Official vs School Time

Tuesday, 7:00 am

By Kate

For reasons completely mystifying, the high school set its clocks ahead by 5 minutes this week. Without notifying anyone. The result of that was an automated phone call yesterday afternoon informing me that my child was tardy with an offer to call the school to discuss the matter if I felt so inclined.

Now, if there is one thing I’m good at, it’s knowing what time it is. I have clocks all over the house. I like clocks. I collect clocks. And, among them, are two atomic clocks by which all the other clocks are set. Atomic clocks that are adjusted for accuracy about six times a day by a radio signal from the atomic clock at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado. Those two clocks do not lose or gain more than 1 second every 20 million years. That’s about as accurate as accurate can be.

So I called the school. The lad was not late. Not by a long shot.

Well, yes, there had apparently been some confusion yesterday morning. The school had reset its clocks over the weekend and they were now running five minutes fast. But that’s the official school time now. The suggestion, politely, was “get used to it.”

“Why are your clocks set five minutes fast?” I asked.

“I don’t know why,” the woman said. “but they are and that’s official school time.”

“But,” I said, “that’s not official US Time. There’s a reason why we all strive to maintain official US Time. If we all arbitrarily decided to set our clocks to our own whims, do you understand how ridiculously complicated everyone’s life would be? Would I need to install a shelf by the front door with a clock for every organization and institution who decides to set their own arbitrary official time? The kid was not late. Not even close. Get rid of the tardy.”

It was agreed, just this once, to erase the tardy. But, the school time holds into the future. We must adjust our lives to official school time from now on.