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Poor Grades Tied to Class Times That Don’t Match Our Biological Clocks

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11–20 of 458 posts

Re: Poor Grades Tied to Class Times That Don’t Match Our Biological Clocks

#11
post #7

Our school district just spent the last year trying to convince parents we should shuffle around start times to make high school later and elementary school earlier. It was a complete clusterfuck. Both teacher and parents alike at both the elementary and the high schools all had a million reasons why it couldn’t possibly work. Since there are a limited number of buses which are shared, you can’t move one start time w…

A cynical explanation here would be: those in charge wanted the appearance of having considered these changes without the headache / political risk of actually changing them.

Re: Poor Grades Tied to Class Times That Don’t Match Our Biological Clocks

#12
post #7

Our school district just spent the last year trying to convince parents we should shuffle around start times to make high school later and elementary school earlier. It was a complete clusterfuck. Both teacher and parents alike at both the elementary and the high schools all had a million reasons why it couldn’t possibly work. Since there are a limited number of buses which are shared, you can’t move one start time w…

It's happening where I live too. It's amazing how quickly the discussion moves past "what's best for students" and into the "it's annoying to me personally" and "when I was a kid, we suffered" conversations.

Re: Poor Grades Tied to Class Times That Don’t Match Our Biological Clocks

#13
At the same time, the point of college for most kids is to prepare them for a white collar job. If there's a huge client meeting at 10am and there's still 3 hours of preparation to do before they arrive, no one's going to be very sympathetic to the excuse that you have "social jet lag." Expecting college adults to get out of bed before 10 is hardly a substantial burden.

Re: Poor Grades Tied to Class Times That Don’t Match Our Biological Clocks

#14

At the same time, the point of college for most kids is to prepare them for a white collar job. If there's a huge client meeting at 10am and there's still 3 hours of preparation to do before they arrive, no one's going to be very sympathetic to the excuse that you have "social jet lag." Expecting college adults to get out of bed before 10 is hardly a substantial burden.

This really depends on the firm. If important aspects of the business take place early, then sure you have to be there early. If not, you might have to be there early anyway because reasons, but then again you might not.

Re: Poor Grades Tied to Class Times That Don’t Match Our Biological Clocks

#15
post #11
post #7

Our school district just spent the last year trying to convince parents we should shuffle around start times to make high school later and elementary school earlier. It was a complete clusterfuck. Both teacher and parents alike at both the elementary and the high schools all had a million reasons why it couldn’t possibly work. Since there are a limited number of buses which are shared, you can’t move one start time w…

A cynical explanation here would be: those in charge wanted the appearance of having considered these changes without the headache / political risk of actually changing them.

Absolutely correct. The superintendent didn’t have the clout necessary to pull it off. What I think she underestimated was the sheer volume of discussion which would ensure which basically made it impossible to get any other policy changes done last year.

Re: Poor Grades Tied to Class Times That Don’t Match Our Biological Clocks

#16

I used to have lots of problems getting up early and always championed later times. Growing up through my twenties, it was great seeing finally seeing more and more evidence for a later school start and I was hopeful for future teens. But it wasn't until my first kid that I finally understood that school doesn't start this early because it's good for the learning experience. It starts this early so parents can get th…

Imagine the horror if we gave other things equal priority with work when we made decisions about how to organize our society.

Oh well.

Re: Poor Grades Tied to Class Times That Don’t Match Our Biological Clocks

#17
post #7

Our school district just spent the last year trying to convince parents we should shuffle around start times to make high school later and elementary school earlier. It was a complete clusterfuck. Both teacher and parents alike at both the elementary and the high schools all had a million reasons why it couldn’t possibly work. Since there are a limited number of buses which are shared, you can’t move one start time w…

Of course none of the debate actually addressed if students would possible learn better from it.

Is that important if there is no way to make a different schedule work from a practical perspective?

Re: Poor Grades Tied to Class Times That Don’t Match Our Biological Clocks

#18

At the same time, the point of college for most kids is to prepare them for a white collar job. If there's a huge client meeting at 10am and there's still 3 hours of preparation to do before they arrive, no one's going to be very sympathetic to the excuse that you have "social jet lag." Expecting college adults to get out of bed before 10 is hardly a substantial burden.

There's a difference between the occasional early start to prepare for a meeting and a default schedule that is just stupid.

Re: Poor Grades Tied to Class Times That Don’t Match Our Biological Clocks

#19
Isn’t your chronotype fairly mutable though? With some dedication and a couple weeks you can adjust to waking up whenever. Especially at college age.

Obviously lifestyle could be limiting if you’re trying to start waking up at 6am, but if you’re optimizing for GPA, then you’re gonna have to make lifestyle sacrifices anyway

Re: Poor Grades Tied to Class Times That Don’t Match Our Biological Clocks

#20
post #7

Our school district just spent the last year trying to convince parents we should shuffle around start times to make high school later and elementary school earlier. It was a complete clusterfuck. Both teacher and parents alike at both the elementary and the high schools all had a million reasons why it couldn’t possibly work. Since there are a limited number of buses which are shared, you can’t move one start time w…

My campus had a rolling start of day, depending on the university that's attended.

I don't know when it was enacted but it certainly helped with congestion in the transports in the morning and in the cafeteria for lunch.

Students are autonomous though. I can imagine that school pupils are not and they cause troubles for parents.

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