Do Schools Begin Too Early?

[rangerrebew]

Do Schools Begin Too Early?
 
The effect of start times on student achievement


By Finley Edwards

 

SUMMER 2012 / VOL. 12, NO. 3

What time should the school day begin? School start times vary considerably, both across the nation and within individual communities, with some schools beginning earlier than 7:30 a.m. and others after 9:00 a.m. Districts often stagger the start times of different schools in order to reduce transportation costs by using fewer buses. But if beginning the school day early in the morning has a negative impact on academic performance, staggering start times may not be worth the cost savings.

 http://educationnext.org/do-schools-begin-too-early/

[Applewood]

In my day,, the local district started school at 9am and let us out at 3:30 pm.  These days I see kids waiting for the school bus at 6:30 am, but I think they go home around 2 pm.  Not sure about other districts,  but I believe the class hours here are set by the teachers union.  They want to start early, so they can go home early.  There is also the matter of bussing.  In the old days, a kid went to the school up the street.  Now they are bussed to a school across town.  Neither the parents nor the kids have any say in where the kids go to school.

Is the early start a  bad thing?  I don't know.  It does prepare the kids for the real world when they have a job that requires them to start early.  And a simple solution to not enough sleep is for parents to turn off the computer and video games and compel the kids to go to bed at a decent hour.  On school nights, I was in bed by 9 pm.  These days I see kids roaming around the streets at all hours.  No wonder they are tired the next day. 

[GtHawk]

In my day,, the local district started school at 9am and let us out at 3:30 pm.  These days I see kids waiting for the school bus at 6:30 am, but I think they go home around 2 pm.  Not sure about other districts,  but I believe the class hours here are set by the teachers union.  They want to start early, so they can go home early.  There is also the matter of bussing.  In the old days, a kid went to the school up the street.  Now they are bussed to a school across town.  Neither the parents nor the kids have any say in where the kids go to school.

Is the early start a  bad thing?  I don't know.  It does prepare the kids for the real world when they have a job that requires them to start early.  And a simple solution to not enough sleep is for parents to turn off the computer and video games and compel the kids to go to bed at a decent hour.  On school nights, I was in bed by 9 pm.  These days I see kids roaming around the streets at all hours.  No wonder they are tired the next day.

My grandsons day starts at 8:15 and ends at 2:45 but I have no idea how much of that time is actually devoted to learning vs recess, snacks and lunch. My recollection is that my elementary school days were longer, plus unlike my children and grandson I didn't have at least one early day a week. Also like many others I had to get up early to walk to school every day and each of my schools was a good mile away.

[Fishrrman]

When I was a kid in elementary school back in the 1950's, seems like school started 8.45-9.00am. And seems like it was a good point past 3 o'clock by the time we got to head for the bus to go home.

Seems to me kids get out too early today. Just a little after 2.00pm and they're already letting out.

[Polly Ticks]

In my area, elementary schools run from 9:05a-3:45p, and middle/high schools are in session from 7:25a-2:35p.  I've always thought that was backwards.  All of my kids were early risers when they were young, but tended to sleep later as teenagers -- at least in the summer when school is out. 

By following dozens of younger and older adolescents for more than two years, researchers in a new study were able to determine that the children fell asleep later and their circadian rhythms shifted later as they grew older. But early school start times interfere with their tendency to sleep later, reducing their total sleep. The study bolsters new recommendations for later school start times.


Sleep starts later as teens age, but school still starts early
(Article is from Nov 2014 regarding a study by Brown University)