A Wake Up Call!

As I have been considering what I see in the classroom in the morning, one thing is abundantly clear to me…We start school too early for these kids.  Our first bell rings at 7:35 am.  Unfortunately, we are one of the 18,000 school districts who open their doors for education before 8:30 am.  According to USA Today, 86% of the nation’s high schools start before that time.  I have wondered many times why the students seem so lethargic in that first hour of school.  Today, I finally decided to do a little research to see what I could come up with to share.  I found many reasons that school districts give for starting school at the crack of dawn.  As USA Today put it, “There are lots of reasons, none having much to do with students’ welfare.”  One of the most startling facts I found is that the American Academy of Pediatrics called high school early start times a public health issue.

I thought to myself, “What do they mean a public health issue?”  It’s probably just a bunch of whiny kid doctors who want to push an agenda of low discipline and lower expectations.  As I began to get deeper into the research, the truth has become indisputable.  Study after study indicates that adolescents need 8.5-9.5 hours of sleep per night.  According to the National Sleep Foundation (who else would know more about sleep) suggests only 14% meet this standard and 70% get less than 8 hours of sleep on a typical weeknight (Boergers).   So if a kid is to get 9.5 hours of sleep but needs to get up at 7:00 in order to be at school by 7:30, that means they need to be asleep by 10:00 the night before.  The easy answer is to make the kid go to bed earlier so he can get his 9.5 hours.  Not so fast, while this seems like a simple fix, there is more to it than meets the eye.

Biology gets in the way on this one.  The circadian time clock that is in all of us shifts around throughout our lives.  For adolescents, the clock shifts for puberty to take place.  For whatever reason our adolescent bodies change the sleep cycle for melatonin release to about 11:00 pm.  This is a biological fact.  The other side to that is that if a kid physically is unable to go to sleep until 11:00 pm, that means he needs to be able to sleep until 8:00 am to get his 9 hours.  Now you know where the American Academy of Pediatrics got its recommendation of starting school no earlier than 8:30 am for middle and high school students.  The translation here is that if we don’t correct these start times for schools, then we only continue to deprive young minds of the sleep they need to develop properly.

So, what happens in a sleep deprived child?  Inadequate sleep has major impact on learning, memory, motivation, and academic performance.  Not to mention what happens psychologically with irritability, depression, and anxiety.  By depriving our children of the sleep they need, we are creating young people who are unable to reach their true potential.  Clearly the evidence proves that early start times are not in the best interest of middle school or high school students either academically or emotionally.  So why do so many school districts insist on hurting the very people they claim to be there to help.  There are many straw man arguments that simply hold no water when it comes to the issue.  But let’s talk benefits of a later start time before we get into our excuses for not doing what is right.

The very small 14% of the school districts who have adopted later start philosophies in education have seen health, safety, and academic performance benefits.  Proper sleep hygiene promotes  a healthier child.  Studies have proven that instances of depression and anxiety along with lower rates of obesity can be directly tied to sleep.  Well rested kids are safer kids who will make better decisions because they can process more efficiently the data that is coming into their brain and react accordingly.  In Lexington, KY the car crash rate dropped 16.5% after they delayed high school start times by one hour.  Academically, Minneapolis, MN experienced student reports that included less fatigue, reduced school absences, and greater continuous enrollment after changing their start time from 7:15 am to 8:40 am.  In short, pushing back start times for adolescents can make students healthier and happier thereby giving them better opportunity to stay engaged in the classroom, constructing a better education.

If changing start times is such a benefit, what are the reasons given for not making the change.  Through my research, I found these barriers to change to be more excuses than valid reasons.  The biggest excuse seems to be transportation.  In fact the first thing out of the mouth of the administrator I mentioned my concerns to was that there would be no way to organize the buses to be able to deliver the kids on that schedule without spending huge amounts of money.  So much for what I learned in school about where there is a will, there is a way.  In fact numerous studies have been done that show how districts stand to save money by working out overlapping routes that fill the transportation need faster and more efficiently.

Another excuse given is that kids won’t want to stay later in order to play sports.  I am a high school coach and one thing I know for sure is that when it comes to high school athletics, parents and students will do whatever is asked of them.  True, family schedules may have to adjust a little and student work schedules may have to be polished up but communities will adapt just like they did in the 70’s when we went to the early start programs.  Something else to consider is that most little league sports programs are coached by volunteers who have regular jobs and coach after they get off work, usually after 5:00 pm.  Evening practices won’t be anything new for most kids or parents.  I believe it is a selfish consideration on the part of the coach, plus we are only talking about 30  minutes to an hour difference.  For more discussion of arguments, click on the link below and visit the myths and misconceptions of late start

Really, when we boil it all down…we are just making excuses not to do what is best for our children.  I have two adolescent boys and three more pre-adolescents.  I can say with great confidence that these kids have experienced sleep deprivation on some levels.  My wife and I try to do what we can to limit evening phone and computer use along with eating big meals and we try to get the kids to bed so they can get their sleep.  When it comes to the teenagers though, we can’t fight biology.  They are wired when they hit the rack at 9:00 pm and toss and turn until 10:30 or 11:00 pm.  I wake them at 6:00 am so we can make it to school on time.  I hate to do it but what else can I do until the district decides to help me and all the other parents do what’s best for our kids.  Hmmm, maybe I can find a correlation between high achieving schools and late start times…..

http://www.startschoollater.net/myths-and-misconceptions.html

http://time.com/4741147/school-start-time/

Sources:

USA Today, August 28, 2014

CABL January 2015, Vol. 31, No. 1

“Earlier School Start Times…URMC Study Says”, Monday, October 2, 2017