The end of the academic year is near. An unusual clock ticking process in the second period wins the ‘metaphor of the day’ today.

The end of the day is not in sight; we are in the second class of six and it is only 10.a.m. We are waiting on a student to answer her one question of the class, but I am certain she is asleep. She hasn’t moved or spoken in three minutes; we are all just silently waiting with different levels of engagement.

Then, someone notices that the clock-time is passing in an unusual way. The seconds hand is still for ten long seconds, then frantically ticks at double speed to make up for lost time. I fleetingly wonder if the sleeping student is making it happen to distract from her, but she seems too peaceful to interfere in class in such a passive-aggressive way.

After some time watching this phenomenon, we turn back to the silent student and wait some more. To this day, I am still waiting.