A little tangent from my usual content because I think this is relevant to all of us:
Pediatricians support many parents in pushing for a later start in the school day for teenagers. They say that making middle and high schoolers attend school before 8:30 "threatens children's health, safety and academic performance." Dr. Breuner states that teenager only get about 6-7 hours of sleep when they should be getting 10. On Monday, the American Academy of Pediatrics began calling on school districts to move start times to 8:30 or later.
Pushing school start times has its pros and cons. One benefit is more sleep. Increased sleep can decrease risk of car accidents and chances of depression and obesity while also improving performance academically. However, shifting start times would also require shifting after school activities and jobs. Additionally, elementary schools would still start at the same time, offsetting start times which might prove troublesome for siblings.
What do you think? Should school start later?
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8 comments:
Even though early school start times are a legacy of thousands of years of agrarian labor, I think it is perfectly feasible to adjust school start times to accommodate teenagers.
In fact, many theorists believe that adolescents are wired by evolution to stay up later. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7932950.stm) Perhaps this has to do with the evolutionary trait of young, strong teens protecting their elders late into the night.
Either way, teens' sleep cycles naturally slip beyond the schedules of adults, so it makes sense to adjust school start times against the grain of the adult world.
While there is some evidence that teenagers go to bed later due to biological influences, I am living proof that anyone can learn to go to bed later. Additionally, I think that if schools started later, students would just take this as a license to stay up even later.
Plus, if school started later, then it would have to end later as well. If Aragon's start time got pushed back by 30 minutes, we would end at nearly four in the afternoon. This would severely impact sports, especially winter ones that don't have that much daylight available to them already.
The prospect of a late start to school does sound exciting and relieving, but as Cleo stated, school would end later, clearly. Being a morning person, I would actually prefer to go to school earlier, and have the afternoon to myself, rather than plunk seven hours of education right into the middle of the day. It would be an inconvenience to time managing. In all honesty, if pediatricians from all over the country truly feel that students do not get enough sleep, it is a question not about the time school starts. It is a question about the efficiency and effectiveness of the system. Either that, or we have a nation of EXTREMELY lazy procrastinators who can't manage their time wisely.
I see what has been said but I slightly disagree. Of course there are going to be logistical issues as Cleo pointed out. However, logistics shouldn't overrule the fact that kids need sleep, and a lot of it. Not only is sleep necessary for brain function but as was pointed out by you Wesley, it lowers obesity and risk of car accidents and much more. If all schools switched to a purely block schedule then school could afford being pushed back at least 30 minutes because there are less classes to get through. Logistics aren't everything. School is about learning and growing, not about convenience.
I believe that moving back that start time would be very unpopular. Many teens have jobs or sports that would have to start later meaning coming home, even later. Most sports do not end until 5 or 5:30.
Look at this year, many seniors were very upset when they had 1st period off, instead of seventh. Many went to great lengths to get their schedules changed.
Though later start times may benefit teens, it would be difficult to convince them that staying later at school is that helpful
In theory, having schools start later would be beneficial for the mental processing of teenagers, but unfortunately I think that for the foreseeable future this will simply remain a theory. As many of you have already stated, the logistical inconveniences this would cause are extensive, and it seems that it would take a slew of other societal changes in order to allow schools to start later and still facilitate the aspects of life we experience now. It's admittedly sad to think about, but our society doesn't place physical health as a very high priority, seeing as there is still the growing problem of obesity, among countless other health issues in our country. Thus, I think it is unlikely that anything will be done to address this potential health concern for students. Until our society as a whole learns to place the health of its people above convenience I doubt any change will be made.
I think that the adjustment of shcool starting times would be feasible to do, but it does come with some costs. As stated earlier and in the article, there are numerous consequences that come from adjusting the starting time, including teacher scheduling and possible earlier start times for elementary school students. Also, I feel that by starting school later, it would give the students more of an incentive to stay up later by giving the excuse of having school start later, so they will in fact be getting the same amount of sleep as before. I think it's possible, but won't happen anytime soon.
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