The Frugal Writer: No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
We’ve been back in school for a month. As fall rolls in, so does the sleep deprived stupor that many of our public school students face as they grapple with early school start times.
At Start School Later, we are dedicated to letting the general public know about the need to establish healthy school start times that do not conflict with the biological needs of students. We’ve met with legislators, public officials, community members, parents and anyone else that will listen to our message.
Ironically, a 7:17am start time does not seem to resonate with most folks that do not have high schoolers. The impression is that this is the time students WAKE UP for school. It doesn’t seem so bad to wake up in the seven o’clock hour, since most adults do it.
Our kids need to wake up at 5:30am or 6:00am to get ready and be AT school by 7:17am. This is the eye-opener that most people do not understand about this problem.
Most students get more sleep by sacrificing breakfast, passing up a shower or getting a ride instead of walking or catching a bus. (They can’t go to bed earlier if they are getting home from sports events later than 9:00pm with homework waiting to be done).
As a sophisticated industrialized nation, we are sacrificing the basic needs of children to save a fast buck and maintain a system we are loathe to change. What about the students that don’t have access to a car? What about the students that have no choice but to walk to school in the dark, sometimes on busy, dark streets with no sidewalk and lots of traffic?
Most adults would not choose to stand outside on a pre-dawn corner to get a ride to work. Yet, we ride by in our cozy cars and vans, passing many of our children who have to “report to work” earlier than most adults.
Somehow, we can jump through hoops when schools mandate early dismissals or sports schedules change, but we are not willing to consider collaborating in our communities for the long-term health, safety and equity of all of our public school students.
Hold on, there’s more. Our magnet students face an even larger burden. Because most of them are going to schools outside of their normal jurisdiction, they face longer bus rides. And, ironically, instead of magnet programs starting on a different schedule, they start at 7:17am, forcing students to get to a centralized bus stop (which might require a longer walk, prior bus trip or car ride) even EARLIER than their mainstream counterparts.
The #727 and #747 Bus makes its first stop at 6:00am in order to service students that are in the Performing and Visual Arts High School program. Bus #543 starts at 5:45am in order to service West County. Bus #144, which serves the South County High STEM students, starts at 6:15am. Bus #130 starts at 6:10am.
So, if you are a motivated individual excelling in school, you have to get there even earlier and travel farther than your sleepy “regular” contemporaries. No good deed goes unpunished.
Here’s the other kicker. More economically advantaged students would just go to a private school or other specialty school outside of the public school system to hone their skills or prepare for their career.
Many of our public school magnet students are coming from economically disadvantaged locations. They don’t have their own cars and may have to walk a mile to get to the bus stop. Their parents are most likely to both have to work, leaving the student to fend for themselves without a convenient ride to school. Is this the message that we want to send to our motivated students that want to excel? That to work hard and perform well, you have to endure an even more demandingly sleepless schedule than your peers?
There is something severely broken in this system, when we continue to turn a blind eye to the basic health and safety needs of our youth and couch them as “character building” for when they “grow up”. Let’s open our eyes and wake up to what we are really asking our youth to do.
Chime in below and tell us of your early morning sojourns. How do the students in your family get to school? Let’s get the conversation started, so we can get our heads out of the sand and start getting real.
Maribel Ibrahim, The Frugal Writer, created www.StartSchoolLater.net and is a Co-Founder of Start School Later, Inc. a grassroots coalition dedicated to ensuring that the health, safety and equity of children are protected when determining school start times. Maribel’s Patch blog has recently been ranked in the Top 100 out of over 22,000 bloggers in the Patch network.
Frances Keefe
3:31 pm on Monday, September 24, 2012
My son's high school starts at 7:05am in Pinellas County, Florida. He is in an IB magnet program, so he does travel out of our zone. If he were to take the bus, it arrives in our community at 5:50am. He's fortunate that he can catch a ride to school with a neighbor who is a senior, so they don't have to leave until 6:25. Woo hoo! I should also note that the bus for our zoned high school arrives in not too much later than my son's, about 6am...oh, and we're just 2 miles from the school. So, it would appear we are the first stop on the route. I am one of those parents who knew that this would be a big transition and tough on my son, yet when the day finally arrived, it was still a shock to the system to have to get up at 5:30am. I agree that we need to pull our heads out of the sand, and stop using the excuses of jobs and after-school sports (really, they can't start one hour later??? Other school systems have done it successfully, so I don't buy it). Thanks for letting me vent.
Terra Ziporyn Snider, Ph.D.
4:48 pm on Monday, September 24, 2012
Just the other morning I met a woman whose 14-year-old son had to wake up at 4:45 a.m. every school morning to get to one of our county magnet schools. To get enough sleep, he'd need to be in bed by 7:45, and he doesn't even get home until 6! This mom happens to be a sergeant in the U.S. Army, and she made it very clear that what was being asked of her growing son was above and beyond what was asked of grown adults who were voluntarily serving their country. She's distressed - and, rightly so, according to the research - about the impact of these hours on his growth and development, not to mention his academics. If we're serious as a county, and a country, about the health and well-being of our kids, and about closing the achievement gap, we have to start making later, healthier, and, yes, more traditional school hours a top priority. We can't do it alone, though, and I urge anyone reading this who wants to help to consider joining us at www.StartSchoolLater.net. Thanks so much!.
Casey Cosgrove
2:37 pm on Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Sounds like this student had a transportation issue, not a start time issue. Also, since he was voluntarily attending the magnet school, the mother could easily solve the problem by putting her son in a local school.
Frances Keefe
2:59 pm on Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Casey, respectfully, I believe that unless you know the circumstances of a person's situation, it isn't appropriate to throw out blanket statements such as that. Perhaps your live in an area where all of the schools, or at least yours, are outstanding. That is not the case in many places these days, due to significant federal and state budget cuts.
Casey Cosgrove
9:58 am on Monday, October 1, 2012
Frances, obviously I don't have all the details, but I'm not the one who threw this anecdote out there. This anecdote is particularly poor, because this student has a transportation problem. A later start time would just get him home later, which according to the anecdote, was already a problem.
It isn't appropriate to use anecdotes to drive public policy, but you sleep drones do it all the time.
Frances Keefe
3:37 pm on Tuesday, September 25, 2012
I won't resort to name calling, Casey, (and it's a shame that you have to stoop to that level), but the fact is that in certain places (and in the county where I live, this is true) there are very good countywide magnet programs that are only offered at one school. So, it shows great determination if a child is willing to make that sacrifice to follow a dream. My example - a very good Culinary Arts program at one high school that is a county wide magnet, which draws students from all over the county, requiring some to be on a bus at 5:05pm. I laud those kids for their tenacity and drive. It's not for everyone, I agree. The school districts offer programs that are not always convenient to all constituents. It still doesn't make sense to start school at 7am. And you're correct, it is a transportation issue -- not enough of it due to severe budget cuts every year.
Maribel Ibrahim
5:44 pm on Monday, September 24, 2012
Frances, thank you for sharing your thoughts. Your post makes it clear that this IS more than just a local problem. Many school districts across the country are grappling with this issue. And, there are many school districts that have made a change to later start times. It IS feasible and results in improvements in students' health, mental state, attendance and performance.
Terra, thank you for sharing your account. There is something so fundamentally wrong when we keep demanding more from students that "cope" with unreasonable demands are able to excel. These cases are usually short-lived and many students have long-standing health issues to contend with as a result, which doesn't become apparent until it's too late. For more success stories, click here: http://www.startschoollater.net/success-stories.html
Maribel Ibrahim
5:50 pm on Monday, September 24, 2012
BTW, I remember when I was in a magnet school. The school moved in the middle of the my 8th grade year and I had to endure an hour long bus ride. Eventually, my father gave me a ride to school on his way to work, but because of his schedule, that meant that I got to school AN HOUR earlier at 7:30am.
We abandoned that plan and I attended my local middle school and started in another magnet school for high school that was closer to my house. The difference is that I had a choice to pursue a high caliber education and was able to make changes that were more appropriate for my sleep needs. I took a public bus and it was a half hour ride. Again, I did it because I WANTED to. I could have gone to a closer school. However, I still got to school at 8:30am and had plenty of time for extra-curriculars, some part time work, and time to relax with family and friends for dinner. I was at my public bus stop at 7:45am.... a far cry from what we expect our students to do today.
LevelheadedOne
7:39 am on Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Kids don't function well during those predawn hours. It's so unreasonable to expect them to learn anything when their normal time clock is telling them it's time for sleep. I had one go through private school which started at 8AM and later, one who opted for public school for the last 2 years. The mornings were drastically different for the whole family and not in a good way. We were the farthest stop on the bus route and on the mornings that I drove her in, it pained me to pass kids walking in the dark on the roads. Something needs to change, it's not working for the families.
cynthia
11:51 am on Tuesday, September 25, 2012
I would never put my child in a magnet school. These programs are usually housed in the lower performing schools to draw (like a magnet) the higher performing student, therefore making this particular school scores better. I want my child to attend school in the area in which we live. Government schools really believe that they know what is best for the child, much more so than the parents. Parents need to be more alert in what is occuring in the government school systems.
Maribel Ibrahim
10:22 pm on Wednesday, September 26, 2012
LevelheadedOne, thanks for your observations. Private schools RARELY start before 8:00am. The only case I can think of is Archbishop Spaulding HS. They have a start time of 7:50am. This is extremely early by private school standards.
cynthia, For some families, a magnet school is their best shot at success. I chose a magnet school for myself because my neighborhood school had so many students involved with violence, truancy and not really caring about excelling. It was a hard environment for students that wanted to do well and work hard to improve themselves. My mother was close to sending us to a private school in town, but the magnet school was free and I had a chance to excel in that environment.
My magnet school was it's own school, not part of a regular school. And yes, we could argue that all students should have the same chance at learning and they do. But when you put together a bunch of students that are willing and are able to excel in advanced studies, they will perform better (and not just on tests). The other students in regular schools do have a chance, but with peer pressure the way it is, most kids that want to just get by will have plenty of opportunity to do that there. Any student can succeed at any school. They just need to be willing to put forth the effort and some will have to work harder than others.
We believe EVERY student should be able to attend school during hours that are safe and healthy for students and their teachers.