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Let Teenagers Sleep

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Let Teenagers Sleep

#461

Post by thiht »

wyre wrote: post #347
fooker wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>As an adult, I eat no carbs, all meat and vegetables, I work from home and sleep in as far as I need every night. My thinking is laser sharp. I need carbs to think. If I do not have rice for 3-4 days, I can not do research work. I can write code, or read papers, but new ideas or brainstorming others' ideas don't happen as naturally. Could be a genetic thing, I guess.

Maybe they mean no starch because vegetables certainly have carbs. For example, a cup of broccoli has 6g of carbs, a cup of kale has 1g, and about 5g in a tomato. Certainly a low-carb diet, but not no carbs.

Why the hell would you measure broccoli or kale in cups?

Re: Let Teenagers Sleep

#462

Post by ramijames »

My high school in Virginia started classes at 7:20am. It meant I had to be at the bus stop at 6:50am, and that meant getting up at 6am if I wanted to eat breakfast.

As someone who had a night owl tendency and a distinct interest in computers, I ended up staying up late most nights. I'd get 4 or 5 hours of sleep and it was never enough. In 10th grade I just gave up on school because I saw no value in the torture of getting up that early for classes I learned nothing in anyway.

Re: Let Teenagers Sleep

#463

Post by JohnBooty »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #319
gabereiser wrote: post #57

The real blame for early high school is extra-curricular sports. Basketball, Football, etc. For those sports to thrive, teams need to practice, in order for practice to be efficient, it needs to be at least an hour. So 2 hours are allocated (suit up, practice, suit down). In order for children to be able to commit to 2 hours extra of their time BEFORE their parents get home (5pm), class would have to end by 3pm. Now,…

Sounds very American, but here in Canada (and many other western countries) we have the same awful hours but without the same insane level of obsession with school sports as in the US. So I dunno, doesn't sound fully explanatory.

    here in Canada (and many other western countries) 
    we have the same awful hours but without the same 
    insane level of obsession with school sports as in the US
I've followed hockey rather closely for many decades, and respectfully, wow.

The stories I've read about youth hockey seem absolutely mental to me. Kids staying with other families (billets) hundreds of miles from home just to play hockey, etc. Bullying, abusive coaches, etc. Rampant sexual assaults. Of course many kids (the vast majority, I'm sure) have healthy experiences too.

This is not to say that either the US or Canada are better than the other in this regard, but it always seems to me that they were cut from similar cloth.

Talking about the US' "obsession with school sports" made me laugh. Usually we're painted as a sedentary nation of morbidly obese children. But apparently we're also obsessed with playing sports. Maybe Hollywood is to blame; we've all seen countless movies where the entire school is obsessed with some football game or whatever.

All I can really say is that school sports teams are completely optional. Most kids don't even participate or even care.

Re: Let Teenagers Sleep

#464

Post by HeavyStorm »

Hell, yes! I've been saying this all my life. At one point I was forced to wake at 5.30 because we lived too far from school.

I'm can't say it caused depression, but it surely made me feel like crap every day, almost all day.

And this is not particular to the US. I live in South America and it's the same here. With one benefit - we don't engage in as many extra curricular activities, so that won't be a problem.

Re: Let Teenagers Sleep

#465

Post by cmrdporcupine »

JohnBooty wrote: post #463
cmrdporcupine wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds very American, but here in Canada (and many other western countries) we have the same awful hours but without the same insane level of obsession with school sports as in the US. So I dunno, doesn't sound fully explanatory.

here in Canada (and many other western countries) we have the same awful hours but without the same insane level of obsession with school sports as in the US I've followed hockey rather closely for many decades, and respectfully, wow. The stories I've read about youth hockey seem absolutely mental to me. Kids staying with other families (billets) hundreds of miles from home just to play hockey, etc. Bullying, abusive…

Yeah hockey in Canada... JFC. Especially small-town/rural Canada -- is a whole other thing. I personally grew up relatively sheltered from it, and my own kids don't participate or care -- but I grew up in rural Alberta and when I got to high school and saw how many kids around me... that was their whole life, I was kind of shocked. But it was at least a clear cultural demarcation line ... the people I liked and hung out with had nothing to do with hockey/sportsing, the people who were rampant violent homophobes ... were.

So, yeah, I guess what I'm saying is that hockey is an obsession for hockey families. For everyone else... kind of a shrug.

What I'm always shocked with with the US is the degree to which just almost everyone is into football. It's some sort of bizarre national religion, and a default smalltalk conversation topic. When I go skiing with friends in the US and we go up a chairlift with strangers, it seems almost always the icebreaker convo. When I worked at Google I was always surprised to find total CS "nerds" strike up a convo about football.

Re: Let Teenagers Sleep

#466

Post by JohnBooty »

mcv wrote: post #436
JohnBooty wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, but that's insane. That's fine for high-level near-professional sports To be clear: high school sports seasons typically last for only 3 or 4 months. So that schedule doesn't seem excessive to me. We're not talking about 52 weeks x 5 days x 4 years. Not sure if you were already aware. Or if this impacts your thinking. Now, some parents book their kids' lives so full of sports (multiple sports, multiple leagues…

So everything is crammed into 3 or 4 intensive months, and nothing the rest of the year? That seems less insane but more imbalanced. Over here I think it's all year round, except for a stop in winter for outdoor sports (sometimes filled in by an indoor variant), and during summer vacation.

Your comments are contradictory.

You claim the US is "insane" for having kids play sports year round, and then when informed of reality, you claim that having kids play sports for only part of the year seems "imbalanced" unlike the superior system in your country where they play, uh, "all year round."

There's definitely a communication breakdown here.

To be clear: American sports are extremely a la carte. Kids can play as many or as little as they like. Different sports happen during different seasons. For example in our area schools boy's tennis is in the spring and girls' tennis is in the fall. This is because the courts are outdoor, there aren't enough courts for both to play at once, and too cold in the winter. Summer is generally too hot and kids are on vacation. Winter sports are indoor sports like volleyball, swimming, basketball, etc. If kids are really serious about a sport they can play nearly year round if they like because there are leagues that operate apart from schools.

Re: Let Teenagers Sleep

#467

Post by JohnBooty »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #465
JohnBooty wrote: post #463

Earlier quoted context omitted.

here in Canada (and many other western countries) we have the same awful hours but without the same insane level of obsession with school sports as in the US I've followed hockey rather closely for many decades, and respectfully, wow. The stories I've read about youth hockey seem absolutely mental to me. Kids staying with other families (billets) hundreds of miles from home just to play hockey, etc. Bullying, abusive…

Yeah hockey in Canada... JFC. Especially small-town/rural Canada -- is a whole other thing. I personally grew up relatively sheltered from it, and my own kids don't participate or care -- but I grew up in rural Alberta and when I got to high school and saw how many kids around me... that was their whole life, I was kind of shocked. But it was at least a clear cultural demarcation line ... the people I liked and hung…

    I personally grew up relatively sheltered from [hockey] and 
    my own kids don't participate or care
Broadly speaking this sounds a lot like America's relationship with youth sports. It's totally optional and easy to avoid.

    Especially small-town/rural Canada 

    [...]

    So, yeah, I guess what I'm saying is that hockey 
    is an obsession for hockey families. For everyone 
    else... kind of a shrug.
It differs greatly regionally in America too. I live far away from Texas but I think in parts of the South and Texas, etc. high school football is like the thing. Growing up in the Northeast nobody gave that much of a crap about high school football. I went to a bunch of games but it was just kind of a place to hang out.

The small town I live in now was the childhood home of a guy who won multiple Super Bowls. Nobody gives a crap about the high school team, the one he played for. It's just not a thing.

    What I'm always shocked with with the US is the 
    degree to which just almost everyone is into football. 
    It's some sort of bizarre national religion, and a 
    default smalltalk conversation topic
It's definitely the default smalltalk conversation topic, at least for men. Feels less like "universal obsession" than "lowest common denominator" though, honestly. The comparison here is probably the other great national universal smalltalk topic, weather. You can talk about it with nearly anybody but it doesn't mean it's their biggest thing.

Honestly, I like football more than most, but even I only think about it for about 5 months a year and at least half the people in my life aren't fans.

    religion
I really do like this comparison. I think it's central to understanding its appeal to America.

BUT here's the key: it is the national religion because it is something we do together, once per week more so than because we actually worship it that deeply. In other words, it's social. An excuse to get together on Sundays (if you're in an NFL town) or Saturdays (if you're in a college town).

It's also something we enjoy together that somewhat cuts across class and ideological divides. It is certainly imperfect but in a world that is lacking in unity and common ground, I don't think this is an entirely bad thing.

Re: Let Teenagers Sleep

#468

Post by alistairSH »

liveoneggs wrote: post #419
Symbiote wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What did you do in gym class? In England, we had a short "physical education" class once a week. That varied between gymnastics, swimming, badminton, indoor cricket, athletics, and occasionally other indoor-ish things. We also had an afternoon ice a week of "games", which was football, rugby, hockey, cricket, softball or similar. Longer, always outdoor sports. (This will probably vary within England, I don't think I'…

gym class = physical education. In the US it's similar as in various sports and running but one funny thing is almost everyone has to learn square dancing.

one funny thing is almost everyone has to learn square dancing

That's very regional. I don't recall square dancing was ever an option where I grew up.

Re: Let Teenagers Sleep

#469

Post by mcv »

JohnBooty wrote: post #466
mcv wrote: post #436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So everything is crammed into 3 or 4 intensive months, and nothing the rest of the year? That seems less insane but more imbalanced. Over here I think it's all year round, except for a stop in winter for outdoor sports (sometimes filled in by an indoor variant), and during summer vacation.

Your comments are contradictory. You claim the US is "insane" for having kids play sports year round, and then when informed of reality, you claim that having kids play sports for only part of the year seems "imbalanced" unlike the superior system in your country where they play, uh, "all year round." There's definitely a communication breakdown here. To be clear: American sports are extremely a la carte. Kids can pl…

No, I used "insane" for training every day of the week, instead of just once or twice per week. "Imbalanced" is doing highly intensive every day training for a few months and then nothing the rest of the year.

I'm not calling the system in my country "superior", I'm just pointing out that it's generally once or twice a week all year round. And I think that's a more balanced approach.

But of course the systems are completely different because in the US it's attached to schools, whereas here it's all independent.

Re: Let Teenagers Sleep

#470

Post by satvikpendem »

astrange wrote: post #456
satvikpendem wrote: post #452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure what you mean exactly. It's already happened currently where a lot of areas require both parents to work to have good living standards, which wasn't the case before widespread dual incomes.

That's a coincidence. It's because the US realized they could drive up home values by banning new homes in the 60s and the effects took a while to create a housing shortage.

I'm not only talking about the US, it's a worldwide phenomenon after dual incomes had been more prevalent.
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