Technolandy

Day 3 (of 2026/27) Be late. Fight the system.

Got into a social media ‘feud’ a bit over the concept of ‘being late’. The video had launched the idea of an event being set up and then the pressure the host felt with people not being on time… group had new parents… an era when I was known for running even later than usual.. ‘Landy time’ has been a term in my friend groups…

I also know from experience, that the pressure of being on time can make “being absent” better than “being late”. Early on I heard the school bell ring while the school was in sight of the trail I was on, but I felt it would be better to turn around and not attend than show up late.  Fortunately one of my friends I was walking with continued to school, indicated my thought process to the teacher, and my grade one teacher came out the back door and called out to me to come into the classroom (I had frozen a bit as I was trying to think of what I would say to my mom when I showed up back at home…) 

Her words were great: it is always better to have you here late than to not have you here at all.

It is why I felt so uncomfortable following an edict as a teacher decades later where as a school we were ‘emphasizing the importance of being on time’ and closing locked doors when the second bell rang. I tried to make it a bit of a game and follow along, but I still think back to many of those days with a student at the door that was closed and needing to wait until the opening dialogue was done before we were to welcome them in.  Not something I would ever encourage moving forward..

Anyways, the feud developed because someone chirped at me that ‘being late is rude, we have buy lives…blah blah exceptions if traffic is busy or… yadda yadda yadda’. The usual list opposing to my mindset of -ish times. 

And I know in education it’s hard because we continue to emulate the mindset of the industrial factory age where common start times were so important… and what led to silos of learning time. Though no universal ‘most optimum’ amount of time for learning… some blocks are 45 mins… others an hour and a quarter… double blocks sometimes… 60 minutes for convenience (I always liked my bell schedules to hit 5s and 0s…) 

And often coaching/encouraging that the pressure to get from one class to another in a finite amount of time was good to build character and prepare people for real life Which emulates some bad habits which fortunately are being frowned upon – eg if you’re one minute late, you stay five minutes later to make it up… and a 1:5 ratio to get some free labour which again, makes it more attractive to be absent than to be late.

I learned to appreciate ‘soft starts’ to my classes – whether elementary or secondary. Being flexible to welcome learners who had something interrupt their planned pathway. Especially when there were elements beyond their control… I think in hindsight, it may be reflecting on the the peers I had in high school who were often late to school because the train that was part of their commute would sometimes/often be late if we could adjust for them, why not adjust for all?

I now try to make a bigger deal waving off any apologies for people who join a meeting ‘late’… not necessary. We are a team and a team is like a family. If someone is always late… be curious rather than judgemental – I know the phrase Ted Lasso brought back to prominence makes some people roll their eyes, but it is important. And maybe unpack why precision around time is so important to you… 

What would happen if we relaxed about time and timeliness and modelled that first and foremost in schools?

Instead of ‘wondering why are you late’

Being ‘glad you’re here’. 

*confessional: I am sometimes mindfully late for some events of late.. to counter it, I am also sometimes exceptionally early… and much of the time +/- a minute of the requested start time… and when others are ‘late’, I do not accept apologies because they are not necessary – when we’re together, it’s the right time.  

Late > absent. Connection > compliance. Curiosity > judgment