Why Does My Kid's Online School Still Start at 7:50 in the Freaking Morning?

[pstokely]

https://slate.com/human-interest/2020/09/online-school-start-times-are-still-too-early-in-the-morning.html?fbclid=IwAR0FaA1A752dCjUiMg8ss6iiVdELP8i7_Wuunigww-8t9HohyyHelTtoD9g

"When I spoke to Arlington’s assistant superintendent for teaching and learning, Bridget Loft, she told me that the bell-schedule decision was made based on the fact that, when planning the fall, the district remained hopeful that some students could return to physical school as early as October. Once kids are traveling to actual schools on actual school buses, the same transportation logjams that, she says, mandate early school starts in the first place come back into play. And so, for consistency’s sake, administrators decided not to institute a different schedule that might have to be changed just weeks into the school year.

Of course, just a few months after those decisions were made, it now seems depressingly unlikely that anyone will be returning to school as soon as October. Loft suggested that if things change, the district is open to rethinking the bell schedule. “We want to be flexible,” she said. “If we determine that it’s going to be some time before these health metrics mean we’re going to be able to move kids into hybrid learning, then that gives us the luxury of time to reconsider moving start times later.”

I told Loft it was disappointing that the district didn’t take this opportunity to change, and asked if schools were just too overwhelmed trying to keep up with shifting demands to really experiment effectively. “It’s too early to tell,” she said. In the spring, “we were building the plane while flying it,” introducing distance learning midsemester, which allowed teachers and administrators some leeway. Now, she said, “We’re trying to ease back into some reflection of what last fall looked like.”

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

1. Yeah. Without the nonsense of School Bus schedules, etc, they should ...

... be able to start even earlier. 6:50am sound ok?

So, with virtual learning supervised by parents, we're getting twice as many people whining about the hours.

[underpants]

2. 9:00 today

I’ll be in the office. My wife will be here working at home. High school so there’s no reason that either parent really needs to be here. Wow I really loved working from home.

[llmart]

3. Really?

Why shouldn't the students be allowed to just roll out of bed whenever they want, stick their earbuds in to listen to their tunes, go downstairs and watch cartoons on teevee, whip out their cell phones and gossip with their friends and then, whenever they are ready, they can choose to sign on if they want to. Then when they are adults they'll certainly be ready for the work world and become productive citizens of our society.

I'm being sarcastic of course. Kids need routine and structure.

[Montelimar]

4. kids need to GO OUTSIDE

and play.

[Bad Thoughts]

5. The Bus Schedule works against kid's health

Pediatricians have been recommending for decades that schools start later because they are not getting enough sleep. This is especially true in high school, where teenagers are constantly deprived of needed sleep. Pediatricians recommend that high schools start no earlier than 8:30, yet they tend to start an hour or more earlier. This could have been an opportunity to give kids something that they needed, rather than force an aritficially structured routine that harms them.