epochal time

I am really intrigued by the authors' idea that we could conduct tutoring on epochal time rather than regular clock time. The idea of having a tutoring session last as long as it need to in order to accomplish specific goals is very interesting. I know as tutor it would relieve some of the time pressure that comes to us. We were scolded regularly at one place for not filling 50 minutes for our tutorials. To be fair, the shortness was sometimes a result of tutors not taking enough time, but often we just finished before the time limit.

On the other hand, what would the goals be? Would they be the same for every session? If so, how would we deal with issues that students brought up outside those goals? If not, how would we decide what those goals are for each session?

I also need to remind myself that some students would take all day if they could have it. Some students want to discuss every minute detail even when there are no serious issues to address and tutors need that time limit to head these students off. Knowing that you only have to endure 50 minutes of a bad session instead of an indeterminate time is sometimes a very good thing.

My point, I guess, is that this is an interesting idea, but I need more time to think about how it would work before deciding if it is a good idea for the writing center.