It's Been A Long And Winding Week

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A week consists of seven twenty-four days totaling one hundred and sixty-eight hours. The work week consists of five nine and a half hour days (spent working by a teacher, on average, at the school. Actual hours may vary.) This totals to forty-seven and a half hours spent working, at the school, each week. The first number is an irrefutable law of nature and is based on the time it takes for the moon to phase from New to First Quarter (when you see half a moon), and from First Quarter to Full, and then from Full to Third Quarter, and finally from Third Quarter to New again. Each of these phases takes seven twenty-four hour days. Hence the lunar month of four seven day weeks, totaling twenty-eight days. Then the Romans, who screwed everything up for reasons I'm still not clear about.That is why there are twelve months in the Western calendar while there are actually thirteen Full Moons in a year, making a year fifty-two weeks long. In Science class this week, while we were studying about the Earth's atmosphere, somehow the question came up as to whether a space day was as long as an Earth day. The context of this conversation was the Exosphere, the layer of our atmosphere where the density of molecules eventually thins to approximately one molecule of hydrogen per cubic meter - the definition of "Outer Space." Once we'd determined that a space day from an Earthlings perspective would be a twenty-four hour day, then the question became who decided seven twenty-four hour days would make a week. This is where the moon became part of the discussion. After discussing days, weeks, months, and years, and why they were the length they were, I was finally able to get the discussion back to the characteristics of the layers of the Atmosphere. But I didn't mind the divergence. Kids learn best when they learn what they're actually interested in learning. Much of this past week was like that, and while it seemed a long week, it was a satisfying week from a teaching perspective. Indeed, teaching these youngsters can be a long and winding road, but the destination is worth the journey.