Recently in class we have been discussing the concept of unstructured and structured time. This topic initially came up after our whole cohort overnight field school/trip where we kind of put ourselves in the shoes of students while our professors led us through what and overnight field trip may look like. Within this two-day experience we had an evenly split amount of time to enjoy structured lessons and activities the professors had set up for us, along with free time to explore things that may have interested us individually and to simply enjoy other people’s company without any concern of a task or getting something done necessarily. We later reflected on this experience in class up at the University and there was a mix of feedback between people absolutely loving the unstructured time and seeing so much value in it. Along with people feeling a little less secure with the lack of structure and pushing them a little to far out of their comfort zone. I initially was a person that was all about the unstructured time and really loved those moments the most on the trip. However, my opinion did weaver a bit after hearing some of my classmates express their discomfort with the lack of structure and feeling a sense of uneasiness with the lack of needing to get something done or having a task to do. I really liked hearing this side from people because I instantly understood it and then questioned myself on whether I would be putting my future students in an uncomfortable/uneasy situation if I had unstructured time with them. Ultimately and after a lot of self reflection and thought I concluded on a hybrid version of the two. I really love the idea of unstructured time and I think it builds life skills, people skills, and it allows for more individuality, however, within that I see the benefit of structure for some people. What I came up with was having broad structure within the unstructured. For example, if you are letting students go explore the area they are in and giving that freedom, maybe planting a seed or suggestion of something to look for in their environment or having a story to come back with would help the students uncomfortable with free time, to find comfort in the fact they have something tangible to accomplish and bring back to the group. But it’s been kept something broad enough that you can do as much or as little with it as you wish to do. I have loved looking into this concept within education and beyond and I think I will look more into it as I continue moving through this journey in education.
