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We had a brave school superintendent a few years ago who tried to get our local high school started at 9 a.m. instead of the traditional much earlier start. (Cl

by GCA10 8y ago

We had a brave school superintendent a few years ago who tried to get our local high school started at 9 a.m. instead of the traditional much earlier start. (Classes at 8 a.m., with many extra-curricular activities like band practice and swim practice at 7 a.m.) This is in the western U.S. All the sleep-cycle research is on his side. And he was friendly, focused and persistent. But his campaign failed. A later school start would have cut into the available daylight for after-school sports practices and events. Perhaps 30% of students participated in these, and perhaps 10% in total (or their parents!) were adamant that anything that short-changed the football team was an evil that needed to be stopped. Still, the don't-do-it crowd was vocal and implacable. Eventually everyone else gave up. So high school students continue to get out of bed, very groggy, at a time that's too early for them, and struggle to get a grip on their morning classes. We wouldn't have it any other way.

zanny 8y ago
Its always bizarre that they don't have activities involving daylight first so that school could run into the dark and nobody would care because you are indoors anyway. Its basically that society used to require daylight to get anything done two centuries ago, and most people worked the farm by daylight, so fast forward generations and centuries and we are still structuring our lives around that - such that we are actually outside in the dark and doing our main activities indoors during the day. Humanity is nothing if not set in its ways.
- bob_theslob646 8y ago
  >Its always bizarre that they don't have activities involving daylight first so that school could run into the dark and nobody would care because you are indoors anyway. Exactly! Your last sentence could not be more true. The other problem is do you have any idea of how much bureaucratic nonsense would have to be changed in order to make one simple change such as changing the schedule of a school start and stop time. It makes you wonder how hard it is to change things that may be of higher importance than this.

by GCA10 8y ago

zanny 8y ago

Its always bizarre that they don't have activities involving daylight first so that school could run into the dark and nobody would care because you are indoors anyway. Its basically that society used to require daylight to get anything done two centuries ago, and most people worked the farm by daylight, so fast forward generations and centuries and we are still structuring our lives around that - such that we are actually outside in the dark and doing our main activities indoors during the day. Humanity is nothing if not set in its ways.

bob_theslob646 8y ago
>Its always bizarre that they don't have activities involving daylight first so that school could run into the dark and nobody would care because you are indoors anyway. Exactly! Your last sentence could not be more true. The other problem is do you have any idea of how much bureaucratic nonsense would have to be changed in order to make one simple change such as changing the schedule of a school start and stop time. It makes you wonder how hard it is to change things that may be of higher importance than this.