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A burned out teacher friend of mine once told me: “Primary education, at least in the USA, is a daytime prison where we send our children so we can go to work.”

0xy 6y ago
It is prison-like conditions indeed. I can't think of any explanation for waking teenagers up at 6am for early school starts than child abuse. They have those wake up calls in prison. Except it's worse because they're still developing.
- happymellon 6y ago
  All schools here in the UK start at 9. Why would you start your schools at 6am, I wouldn't take a job that made me start at 6am every day? I would just slowly get tired and less effective.
  - hirple 6y ago
    Not true, we certainly have those that start at 8. Consider a ~45m commute and time to get ready, and waking up at 6 something is not unheard of. (I personally had to wake up at 5:45 to catch a bus to a school over an hour away).
    - happymellon 6y ago
      What is not true? I'm just going off of what the gpp mentioned. Now I don't quite understand what you have written here because you just say "we", but assuming you mean work colleagues then I think there is a bit of a difference between someone starting at 8, and making kids catch a bus at 5:45 so that they can start school an hour later at 6:45? That's not waking up at 6, that is out of the house before 6, and while you survived, it really shouldn't be necessary in a 1st world country. While you did it, there is plenty of evidence that you could have done even better if you weren't subjected to it.
- KDJohnBrown 6y ago
  My k-8 years started at 06:42, 9-12 started at 07:30. I guess the logic was that we got older we didnt need our parents to dress us. I made a deal with most of my 9-12 teachers: I wouldn’t show up and make their lives hell but I would get A’s on all of the tests. My parents trusted me so they accepted this. I sort of stayed out of trouble, my teachers’ average test scores weren’t impacted negatively and I spent my days coding and hacking (so I got arrested twice .. sue me).
theonething 6y ago
I wonder if that applies to public schools only or includes private as well. Is private school (in general) worth the cost?
- cafard 6y ago
  You pay for the other students and for their families. At public schools, you pay in property tax and mortgage. In private schools, you pay tuition. In the Washington, DC, area, there are very good private schools. I doubt that any of them are better than Wootton or Churchill in Montgomery County, Maryland, or such magnet programs as Thomas Jefferson in Fairfax County.

0xy 6y ago

It is prison-like conditions indeed. I can't think of any explanation for waking teenagers up at 6am for early school starts than child abuse. They have those wake up calls in prison. Except it's worse because they're still developing.

happymellon 6y ago
All schools here in the UK start at 9. Why would you start your schools at 6am, I wouldn't take a job that made me start at 6am every day? I would just slowly get tired and less effective.
- hirple 6y ago
  Not true, we certainly have those that start at 8. Consider a ~45m commute and time to get ready, and waking up at 6 something is not unheard of. (I personally had to wake up at 5:45 to catch a bus to a school over an hour away).
  - happymellon 6y ago
    What is not true? I'm just going off of what the gpp mentioned. Now I don't quite understand what you have written here because you just say "we", but assuming you mean work colleagues then I think there is a bit of a difference between someone starting at 8, and making kids catch a bus at 5:45 so that they can start school an hour later at 6:45? That's not waking up at 6, that is out of the house before 6, and while you survived, it really shouldn't be necessary in a 1st world country. While you did it, there is plenty of evidence that you could have done even better if you weren't subjected to it.
KDJohnBrown 6y ago
My k-8 years started at 06:42, 9-12 started at 07:30. I guess the logic was that we got older we didnt need our parents to dress us. I made a deal with most of my 9-12 teachers: I wouldn’t show up and make their lives hell but I would get A’s on all of the tests. My parents trusted me so they accepted this. I sort of stayed out of trouble, my teachers’ average test scores weren’t impacted negatively and I spent my days coding and hacking (so I got arrested twice .. sue me).

theonething 6y ago

I wonder if that applies to public schools only or includes private as well. Is private school (in general) worth the cost?

cafard 6y ago
You pay for the other students and for their families. At public schools, you pay in property tax and mortgage. In private schools, you pay tuition. In the Washington, DC, area, there are very good private schools. I doubt that any of them are better than Wootton or Churchill in Montgomery County, Maryland, or such magnet programs as Thomas Jefferson in Fairfax County.