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Tick Tock … What’s The Point of This Clock?

When I was in art school, there was a clock — just a generic one you could hang on the wall. It was low enough that anyone could reach it. I didn’t discover the time was off until I stayed after class to work on an assignment. Then, I headed to my next class. Only I heard the sound of the clock tower ringing while en route. The clock in my last class was five to ten minutes slow. How could this be? The time was then fixed on the clock the next day, and I assumed the problem was over. But, lo and behold, the clock ended up five to ten minutes slow again. The professor suggested that the clock might be winding down. I pointed out that clocks that are winding down don’t keep a consistent time. My theory was that someone was setting the clock backward intentionally, so that they would have extra time to arrive to class without being counted as late. Who cared how it affected the rest of us?

A girl in my class challenged me with the, “Why do you care so much?” argument. She was offended apparently by my desire for rules and structure — as so many people are. I pointed out to her that she had a class right after this one in which she told me had a strict tardiness policy. So, really, it affected her far more than me. But she was more offended by my attitude than by the actions of the person getting her into trouble. Because ironically our release time from class was being determined by the time on this clock that everyone now knew was faulty. The professor also didn’t seem to be bothered by the faulty clock. Once the onetime reset was done, nothing further was attempted to fix the problem. And yet, he still insisted on having us be in class “on time,” or we’d be counted as absent. He also continued to release us from class “on time” — all based on the faulty clock.

What I learned from this experience is that some people really hate rules and standards applied to themselves. And they are more invested in shutting down people who have standards than in their own best interests. Yet, those same people don’t mind insisting that other people be made to live under their rules and standards.

Eventually, I just relied on my watch. I could afford to be released late. If people who couldn’t afford to be released late would rather see my quest for consistency and standards fail than fix the problem, so be it. But really, what is the point of a clock with the wrong time?

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