Rachel Morello, writing for State Impact Indiana, has a story about doctors recommending later school start times for middle schools and high schools to accommodate adolescents need for sleep and thereby improve their ability to learn while they’re at school. This will never catch on because life is a morality play, and anything that seems enjoyable or pleasant is immediately suspect. Can’t coddle “kids these days”(tm) you know. Misery builds fortitude which is why piling on homework and yelling at students to work harder will always be a more popular approach to education by policy makers.
I started to write a sarcastic comment about putting them to bed at midnight with a 4:00 a.m. wake-up call, but I figured that someone would take it seriously, and maybe agree. People want to rename rewards and call them “bribes”, and treating kids in a loving way as “coddling”. We might also discover that some of those people could be called “abusers” and their children “unhappy” and “deprived”.
Policy makers sure, but practitioners in many areas (where my kids go included) have already made this change.
Is a little weird putting my elementary school kids on a bus at 6:45 AM…
Doug, I think you are advocating evidence based policy/legislation. As we all know that can’t stand in this state.
What was good enough for my grandpappy is good enough for my grandkids. Never mind we went from steam power to nuclear power (and to the moon) in that period of time.
Wouldn’t want to upset the delicate sensibilties of the rugged individualists that are today’s Hoosiers.
I love this comment that I would like to marry it
So the article says that they need 8.5 to 9.5 hours of sleep. Hmmm, if school starts at 7:00 then they should be in bed between 9:30 and 10:30. Doesn’t seem that hard to figure out. So if we move the start time to 8:30 then they can stay up till 11:00 or 12:00. Either way get them to bed on time, not that hard.
I think there are other studies that show teens circadian rhythms don’t lend themselves to going to bed that early. Anticipating that objection, I was surprised the article didn’t mention it. Here is a passage from the first thing I found on Google:
We also have a cultural bias in favor of the morning and against the night. Productive work happens early. Frivolity happens at night.
But, doing the math, the bus leaves at 7:15 around here. Have to wake up at 6:30. Getting to bed at 9:30 for a 16 year old is a pretty tall order. They should probably be going to school more like from 10 to 5.
This. Kids stay up late, it’s part of being teenagers. They can’t go to sleep at 9:30 anymore than most adults can be awake at 2:30am
Well, Unless my 16 yr old has homework that requires him to be up late after his activities, he is in bed at 9:30-10:00. If for some reason he would be coming home with enough homework every night that kept him up late, then we would have to look at curbing his after school activities.
I will just have to say that every kid is different. If it works for your kid great. I do know my kid likes to be able to sleep in until 7:30 unlike last year when he was up and out of the house by 6:45.
@timb116 I guess i was just raised different then. I had to be in bed early on school nights. Weekends were different. No reason they have to be up late on school night unless they are working on homework.
If your high schooler is in after-school activities, there is no way he or she is getting everything done, and having a little time to decompress, before 9:30. My son, for example, a senior, gets home from football at 6:30 or so, then has dinner, then showers, then sits down at about 8 p.m. for two hours (or so) of homework.
Perhaps we can justify the current schedule as preparing our kids for a life where society is not structured in a way that is healthy or efficient for humans.
Right, preparing them for a life of drudgery and exhaustion will only help them adjust to a cubicle farm that much easier
I thought a later start time would never work because it would be harder to have sports teams practices and, obviously, we have to leave time for that. (end sarcasm).