Do school days start too early?

[JA]

I’ve always had to wake up at 6 or earlier for school and, after HS, for work since Elementary School. It’s awful and certainly caused me to be far less focused and academically successful when I was in school. I definitely think teenagers shouldn’t have to wake up before 8am - at least based on personal experience and evidence presented by Psychology researchers.

[America Needs R'hllor]

Schools should have two shifts which students can choose from, because I'd much rather go to school at night.

...The teachers exist as human beings, you know.

What would make you think they would teach for both shifts?

I highly doubt most teachers (who likely have a family etc) would want to work in night shifts.

[RINO Tom]

I have lost track of when they usually start, but I started my high school day at 8:05 am, and I think that was too early.  We got out of there by 3:15 or something, and shifting it to 8:40 and 3:45 would have been just fine.

[Alabama_Indy10]

Our school day lasted from 7:45 - 3:05.. I never had a problem with it.

[Del Tachi]

Generally yes.  American students spend too much time in school as is but the idea of "summer break" is also somewhat antiquated too.

I would suggest something like a 9:30 to 2:30 school day with the school year being transitioned to 4 academic "quarters" with a slightly longer break in late summer to allow for grade transition.

[Sirius_]

I get that there are a lot of issues about the practicality of my proposal, but it would be nice to have.

With conventional school schedule, yes it is too early.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Generally yes.  American students spend too much time in school as is but the idea of "summer break" is also somewhat antiquated too.

I would suggest something like a 9:30 to 2:30 school day with the school year being transitioned to 4 academic "quarters" with a slightly longer break in late summer to allow for grade transition.

It would need to be required that schools get air conditioning.

[YE]

Schools should have two shifts which students can choose from, because I'd much rather go to school at night.

...The teachers exist as human beings, you know.

What would make you think they would teach for both shifts?

Our teachers don't get paid enough as it is. How would that work with a second set of teachers?

You'd have two teachers teach in one classroom I suppose, one during the day and one at night.

[Del Tachi]

Generally yes.  American students spend too much time in school as is but the idea of "summer break" is also somewhat antiquated too.

I would suggest something like a 9:30 to 2:30 school day with the school year being transitioned to 4 academic "quarters" with a slightly longer break in late summer to allow for grade transition.

It would need to be required that schools get air conditioning.

In the South air conditioning is pretty much universal in public buildings.  Is it not in the Midwest?

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Generally yes.  American students spend too much time in school as is but the idea of "summer break" is also somewhat antiquated too.

I would suggest something like a 9:30 to 2:30 school day with the school year being transitioned to 4 academic "quarters" with a slightly longer break in late summer to allow for grade transition.

It would need to be required that schools get air conditioning.

In the South air conditioning is pretty much universal in public buildings.  Is it not in the Midwest?

My school didn’t have it when I attended. Paper would regularly stick to my arm in the run up to finals.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Transition from public to charter schools have made school days start earlier

[DC Al Fine]

I’ve always had to wake up at 6 or earlier for school and, after HS, for work since Elementary School. It’s awful and certainly caused me to be far less focused and academically successful when I was in school. I definitely think teenagers shouldn’t have to wake up before 8am - at least based on personal experience and evidence presented by Psychology researchers.

I'm an adult and would rather work early. I'm much more productive at 7am than 5pm. When exactly does the transition to being compatible with early rising happen?

[Mike Thick]

I would definitely like that.

Our school has a few scheduling options: you can take periods 1-6, which is a 7:30-2:30 day, or 2-7, which is an 8:30-3:30 day. A chosen few who hate themselves sufficiently (myself included) take 1-7.

[DPKdebator]

I start at 7:35 and get out at 2:10, which I feel is pretty reasonable. I don't usually feel sleep deprived unless it's the odd day where I have to stay up late for an assignment.

[Starry Eyed Jagaloon]

I start at 7:35 and get out at 2:10, which I feel is pretty reasonable. I don't usually feel sleep deprived unless it's the odd day where I have to stay up late for an assignment.

That's insane. You have to wake up before 7:00!?

[dead0man]

Transition from public to charter schools have made school days start earlier

It looks like you're saying the rise of charter schools has caused all school days to start earlier.  That seems far fetched.  Did I misunderstand you?  If not, cite?

[Statilius the Epicurean]

I don't think it would be a good thing for children to be preparing and leaving for school during the day when most working parents aren't there.

[HAnnA MArin County]

Generally yes.  American students spend too much time in school as is but the idea of "summer break" is also somewhat antiquated too.

I would suggest something like a 9:30 to 2:30 school day with the school year being transitioned to 4 academic "quarters" with a slightly longer break in late summer to allow for grade transition.

It would need to be required that schools get air conditioning.

In the South air conditioning is pretty much universal in public buildings.  Is it not in the Midwest?

All of our classrooms had AC except for the music room, which was the auditorium stage in the gym, and the gym didn't get AC until a couple of years after I graduated.

Our school hours were from 8:30-3:06 with lunch time from noon-12:27 p.m. and I was perfectly okay with that (of course, I lived literally right next to the school and walked to and from every day).

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Nope

[bagelman]

No; starting late is bad news for after-school sports, especially on meet/game days. 

Not important. High school sports should be deprioritized.

[IceAgeComing]

No; starting late is bad news for after-school sports, especially on meet/game days. 

Not important. High school sports should be deprioritized.

Considering the significant problems that America has with obesity and similar issues plus the wider issue of inactivity in the West generally; I would argue that sports and exercise should be seen as something that should be prioritised.  Generally if you encourage exercise at a younger age its much more likely that people remain active in the long term which is incredibly beneficial both for the individual - more likely to lead to a longer, healthier life - and for society as a whole - cuts healthcare costs and a healthier population tends to be more productive.

[bagelman]

No; starting late is bad news for after-school sports, especially on meet/game days. 

Not important. High school sports should be deprioritized.

Considering the significant problems that America has with obesity and similar issues plus the wider issue of inactivity in the West generally; I would argue that sports and exercise should be seen as something that should be prioritised.  Generally if you encourage exercise at a younger age its much more likely that people remain active in the long term which is incredibly beneficial both for the individual - more likely to lead to a longer, healthier life - and for society as a whole - cuts healthcare costs and a healthier population tends to be more productive.

I'm not saying that we should completely defund high school football, it's just that what's important for everyone: both athletics and non, is to make long overdue reforms to stop the negative health effects associated with sleep deprivation.

[darklordoftech]

No; starting late is bad news for after-school sports, especially on meet/game days. 

Not important. High school sports should be deprioritized.

Considering the significant problems that America has with obesity and similar issues plus the wider issue of inactivity in the West generally; I would argue that sports and exercise should be seen as something that should be prioritised.  Generally if you encourage exercise at a younger age its much more likely that people remain active in the long term which is incredibly beneficial both for the individual - more likely to lead to a longer, healthier life - and for society as a whole - cuts healthcare costs and a healthier population tends to be more productive.

However, it could be argued that sleep deprivation makes people too tired to exercise.

[IceAgeComing]

You said nothing about one particular sport though; just sports in general.  In cases like this it would always be minority sports that would suffer the most and its often those that provide the best health benefits since they are often more inclusionary and therefore often benefit the people that need it most. 

I might just be old now: the obvious solution seems to be that people go to bed earlier in order to make sure that they are ready for the morning.  Although some of the opening times listed here are a little weird and I'd suggest that starting around 9am would be the best time to start; ending around 3:30.  You can't go any later than that since then you'd be asking teachers to work very late (they tend to be around for a few hours after the day ends doing things like lesson planning or marking or other important routine things) and that doesn't strike me as being very fair to them - they already work a stressful job with longer hours than many realise, making them finish very late wouldn't be something that I'd want to do.  Another thing would be to reduce the amount of homework given out: in my experience the best teachers were often the ones that gave out relatively small amounts of the stuff and often it was just finishing stuff started in class while the bad ones gave out far too much but that's just me.

[Hash]

This was my work (class) schedule in Mexico, for a primary school:



The morning shift ran from 8am to 12:30pm (now it is 7am to noon) and the afternoon shift, when I worked, from 1pm to 5:30pm (but they rang the bell early everyday) (now it is 1pm to 6pm).