Posted on 09/20/2018 8:56:22 AM PDT by re_tail20
The world does not revolve around you, teens are often told. Indeed it doesnt, as they are reminded every school-day morning when disabling their alarms. The average start time for public high schools, 7:59, requires teens to get up earlier than is ideal for their biological clocks, meaning many teens disrupt their natural sleep patterns every school day.
The world, apparently, does not revolve around parents either. Their lives also tend to be mismatched with school-day schedules, which usually end a good two hours before the typical American workday does. As Kara Voght recently wrote in The Atlantic, that leaves a daily gap of unsupervised time for many children, forcing their parents to find affordable care for their kid or to adjust their own working schedule.
Why does the school day end two hours before the workday?
Its not entirely clear who the school day does revolve around. The schedules that dictate most of American K-12 life descend from times when fewer households had two working parents. The result is a school day that frazzles just about everybody. But a few changes could mitigate that frazzling significantly. I dont know about making everyone perfectly happy, says Catherine Brown, the vice president of education policy at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank. But I think that we could get much closer to optimizing for students, parents, teachers. The school day, Brown says, could be improved in two main ways: It could start later, and it could go longer.
A later start, in both middle and high school, would help with the later sleep cycles that are typical in teenage years. Most teens dont naturally fall asleep until about 11 p.m., and are supposed to get about nine hours of sleep per night. But when class starts before 8:30as....
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
And they have already spent far more then necessary being indoctrinated.
There is no time for play or relaxation in the world we have invented for children and certainly there is no freedom or independence.
By the time the child gets home at six, has dinner, had done his two hours of homework it is nine at night. Just when is it that he is suppose to play? When is he suppose to interact with his family?
It is puzzling why you would want to leave you child in a kiddie prison even a minute longer then necessary.
Yeah, back before we started having the living sh#t taxed out of our paychecks so that to have a family it took the labor of one parent to be the breadwinner and the other to pay the taxes. CAP sure as heck doesn't want to go back to the days one working parent was enough.
jibe
I think you’re really overstating it. The sooner young people adopt adult habits, the better.
lololo - thanks.
My workday is 6 am to 7 pm and often goes longer. I doubt most parents work 9-5. Should we ban 8 am college courses and a workday that starts before 9 because it is too hard on the little darlings?
The article leaves out after school activities as well. Sports for my son went til 5 or 6 and dance for my daughter til 8:30 pm. I would hate to move those activities any later.
It’s no curse, and it has nothing to do with logic. Atlantic: dictionaries are cheap and enable people to find out what words mean.
This does not merit an article in the Atlantic.
As for going to bed at 11, and up early, the solution is “go to bed earlier!” simple, and doesn’t require an article in a pseudo-intellectual magazine. Stop trying to make wusses out of kids.
If a parent starts work at 7:30, but school doesn’t start until 10:00, unless there are other older children in the home, that parent is still going to have to wake the child at 6am to be dropped off at a before-school daycare. So how does that make sense for sleep schedules? Or the household budget?
In western culture, kids over 12 were expected to go straight home -and stay there- and spend their two+ afternoon hours supervising the younger kids, doing their homework and chores by the time the parents came home - or else the belt came out or allowances were dinged. Playtime was from the time parents came home until the dinner bell rang or the streetlights came on and only with kids on the block. “Social networks” were a non-starter. Keeping parents happy was more important than keeping superficial friends happy. And teachers worked to accomodate parents, preparing the children for a professional lifetime of getting up at 6am even if it meant going to bed at 9pm, instead of the other way around.
If teachers want a more elitist work day, perhaps they should change professions. Western culture is not raising fragile elitists, we are raising worker bees. Just like we did 100 years ago:
OBEY
And no I am not overstating it.
No COC (Children of Color)?
what’s wrong with being a good, loyal taxpayer in the most desirable country in the world? Sure, you can sit around and make substinence level pay, and spend your days gossiping about insignificant drama with similarly unemployed. But then, in your last moments, you’ll probably ask yourself, why did I deprive myself all my life and now I’m here dying in a charity nursing home, with not even enough money for a headstone to mark my miserable existence, surrounded by strangers who could care less about me? As you fade away, leaving the good taxpayers to pay your medical bills, a parasite to the end.
Pick your poison.
I hate the early start too. But I dont want school to go til 5, because most of the school day is total waste of time. My kids learn more in their after school activities that could actually help them in life. Im a former homeschooling mom who knows what actually helps a child become a strong, self-sufficient young adult. For example, nothing matches the hard work, slow progress, wins and losses, teamwork, and the feeling of mastery that comes from being a serious athlete. Or musician. Or robot creator. I want enough afternoon time for the kids to still have their other activities.
Thank you, Judy.
When classes are over, the school day isn’t.
There’s still homework and sports.
My day usually wasn’t over until 8:00 or 9:00 PM.
Not complaining...
“End the public school experiment completely.”
Best answer.
And the one with the greatest probability of saving our poor children faced with recipients of eddikashun degrees.
Wah.... My biological clock would have me fall asleep at 2AM and wake at about 10AM. The Navy had me on a rotating cycle, civilian work has had me start anywhere from 5Am to 8AM through my life...unless I was on 3rd shift.
I would be ok with having them start at 8AM and go to 4 to still allow for after school activities until 6, but then I’m ok with year-round school with 2 week vacations between quarters similar to Japan....though NO Saturday school.
but we wouldn’t want the teachers to actually have to get up earlier..
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