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 ...
It starts too early for teens sleep patterns, and ends too early for working parents. Does the country have to be stuck with it?
Just as a broken clock is right twice a day, once in a while, The Atlantic has an article with interesting ideas which just might be worthwhile in some ways.
And what about when kids used to live and work on a farm, should they just sleep till noon?
It should mirror the workday - 9am to 5pm, or 930am to 530pm.
The curse of the 24 hour day.
The curse of the sun rising so early in the morning.
And least they didn’t blame it on Trump, but I didn’t read the whole article so who knows.
End the public school experiment completely.
What a pant load. If they get up nice and early every day (whether they feel like it or not) and put in a good day’s work, then they’ll fall asleep when their head hits the pillow and can get to bed earlier.
Many people’s sleep pattern doesn’t jive with their employer’s requirements. Thus the snooze button. Easier to change your sleep pattern than the working world.
My teen’s natural sleep pattern apparently ends about 11:30am based on his Saturday schedule.
This is idiotic
My day starts at 530 and work at 7 am
Get used to it snowflake
Maybe kids still need to be home by 2:30 to do chores on the farm? :)
Curse of America's Illogical Schools
They need summers off to work the fields. Good for teachers don’t you think?
Well, if school went until 5PM at least we’d quit hearing calls for government-funded after school child care.
This again?
Maybe those sleepy teens should put down their phones and go to sleep at a decent hour.
“earlier than is ideal for their biological clocks”
I think mankind’s biological waking time is when it gets light out, regardless of clock time. We obviously can’t see in the dark and need to get as much done as possible (or at least before modern conveniences)
I’ve always had to show up at 7:45 to be on time for my 8:00 job. Most jobs are 8 hours. 9-5 is only 7.
Many of those sleepy teens will end up in jobs that are the graveyard shift. And, horrors of horrors, jobs that cut into their weekends. Deal with it. That’s reality. Welcome to it.
Maybe this is a push for school dinners too. And then there are the after school programs (debate team, sports, etc). So the kids get home what 8 or 9 and night and then start their honework assignments???
Get government completely out of the business of education, and let private schools set whatever hours they want.
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