I'm no scientist, but it doesn't take a scientist (rocket or otherwise) to deduce that TI's upcoming summer schedule is a bear. There's a "full" term of about 7.5 weeks and two shorter terms of about 4 weeks. I'm scheduled to teach two courses in the second short term. Both of the short terms are 15 days of class. Yes, that's 15 days, and that includes the final exam day. So it means slightly more than a week's worth of material every class meeting. It means insane. And it means, I predict, the following as well:
--Hardly any time for sustained discussion.
--Hardly any time for students to work on essays out of class, to test out possibilities and work through the process even semi-organically.
--Hardly any time for revision.
--Not a highly motivated group of students who can focus intensely for 15 days of class but a gaggle of deer in the headlights.
From an admin's standpoint, it's no trouble to make a schedule do anything you want: spin, pirouette, cook an omelet. On paper, it's merely the same schedule in less time. Just stockpile the material, and you're good to go. But we teachers know it doesn't work that way. To quote the great Steely Dan, I foresee terrible trouble.
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