Later School Start For Teenagers Brings Drop In Absenteeism 436
krou writes "Monkseaton High School in North Tyneside, UK, began an experiment in October that saw its 800 pupils ranging in age from 13-19 attend school an hour later than normal, at 10am. Early results indicate that 'general absence has dropped by 8% and persistent absenteeism by 27%.' Head teacher Paul Kelley supported the idea because he believed that 'it was now medically established that it was better for teenagers to start their school day later in terms of their mental and physical health and how they learn better in the afternoon', and he now claims that the children are becoming 'happier better educated teenagers' as a result of the experiment. The experiment is being overseen by Oxford neuroscience professor Russell Foster. 'He performed memory tests on pupils at the school which suggested the more difficult lessons should take place in the afternoon. He said young people's body clocks may shift as they reach their teenage years — meaning they want to get up later not because they are lazy but because they are biologically programmed to do.'"
I can totally understand this (Score:3, Interesting)
Now that I'm a working stiff, I get up at 6am every morning, but *believe* me, I'd prefer to mosey on in to work at 10 am and work later.
Re:What About The Parents? (Score:1, Interesting)
Now I know what's wrong with your country.
Wellington High School already does this (Score:5, Interesting)
At Wellington High School [wikipedia.org], they have been starting the seniors about an hour later for the last few years. It seems to work well, and the students are happier for it.
BS (Score:2, Interesting)
Everyone is different. You cannot paint all people with such a broad brush. There are always morning people. When I was in High School, I was up at 4AM every day (and still am) to do my homework and/or study for tests.
For me, mornings were for learning, and afternoons were for doing. My brain has always worked that way. A late school day would have been horrible for me.
Re:Real World (Score:3, Interesting)
10 am sounds really late to me. My school started at 7:30, which meant that the bus picked us up at 7 am. That felt like 4 years of punishment. The reason for the early start time was all the afternoon activities. School got out at 2:30; at that point it was sports (swimming for me) or various clubs, until 4:30 or 5. How on earth can you have any sort of sports when school starts at 10 am?
Blame the electric light bulb (Score:4, Interesting)
Thomas Edison has a lot to answer for (at least for adult sleep patterns).
Electric lighting may have given massive boosts to human productivity. However, if it wasn't for electric light, we would all be going to bed much sooner (as you can't do any real work by candlelight), and then waking up in the morning with the natural daylight. Anyone who has spent time wild camping has experienced this..... and also knows how much more refreshed they feel waking up to the wavelengths inherent to natural light.
Of course, those that live above/below certain latitudes might argue differently when winter comes along and there is no daylight in which to do any work. You can only spend so much time in bed
Re:What About The Parents? (Score:3, Interesting)
The majority of the times I ever considered skipping school was because I was being woken up at 7 in the morning and would have prefered another 2 hours of sleep when I would have been far more accepting of the idea.
I went through a period of roughly 2 months in my senior year where I went to sleep at 6PM and woke at around 2AM, now the absurdity of that aside, one benefit of doing so was I didn't miss a single day, wasn't late for a class, and my grades improved significantly. I believe these effects were a direct result of me being well rested, and with the ability to get an extra hours worth of sleep if I felt like it with time to spare.
Re:What About The Parents? (Score:3, Interesting)
Furthermore, my wife lost her virginity at 14 and said she felt it was a huge mistake. In fact, most of the women I know who lost their virginity before 18 have told me they wished they hadn't. That's not my perception as a new father, but what women have been telling me for over a decade and I have no reason to believe they lied to me. Many of them did so out of a perception that "everyone is doing it", but felt totally unprepared before, during and after the event. Many of them didn't have sex again for several years after breaking up with their first partner because they didn't feel they could handle it yet (my wife incuded). I realize that the Baby Boomers here in the US believe that they are the first generation to have ever had a good idea, but I though that most
Now, with all of that being said... I don't believe that pushing back the start of classes at the HS by an hour will result in increased teenage sex. The vast majority of students will use the extra hour in the morning to get more sleep. I could see a little more recreational drug use (had a friend who used to get high before school), but it's not like it's going to make kids use drugs that wouldn't have anyway. I've been wanting schools to move start times back for years. I was a morning person in HS, but my older brother was not. I had to get up an extra half an hour early just to get my brother out the door on time. Even as a morning person, I would have appreciated the extra hour of sleep.
Re:What About The Parents? (Score:5, Interesting)
Four of the 5 kids in my house participated in delinquent behaviors to some extent (my youngest sister is damn near a saint) with similiar exposure to unstructured/unsupervised time. When that time increased my youngest brother increased the amount of delinquent behavior, but it stayed below the level of police invovlement. The same cannot be said of my other sister. My older brother and I managed to keep our delinquent behavior relatively unchanged, in part becase we were responsible for watching our younger siblings during that time.
With all of that being said... I don't believe that starting HS an hour later will be the problem they invision. The added hour of unsupervised time in the morning is most likely going to be taken up by sleep or time in front of the TV. Besides, starting an hour later in the AM means getting out an hour later in the PM. That means there will be 1 less hour between release from school and when the parents get home. I almost never got into trouble before noon on the weekends, and never during the school week. If anything I believe that this will lead to decreased delinquent behavior in the hours after school.
Re:What About The Parents? (Score:4, Interesting)
My brother recently finished secondary school in the UK, and for several years before he left the school had an automated system that would send a text message to my parents if he missed registration for any lesson, and request a response. If one wasn't received, then it moved onto making voice calls to secondary contacts.
It has a bit of a big brother feel to it, but it does mean that the parents can't claim that they didn't know it was happening.
Re:Real World (Score:3, Interesting)
Actually, I've worked several jobs where working life did run to that timetable, so that people didn't get caught up in the morning rush caused by every job insisting that you should be sitting at your desk by 9am for no particular reason. It led to people not being exhausted by the time they got into the office because they'd been force to stand on the train with their head in somebody's armpit.
Re:Puritan pferd merde stops it in US (Score:4, Interesting)
I think a big part of the problems I've seen with the Massachusetts education system is the use of new "Progressive Education" techniques pioneered in the 60's, shown to be largely counter productive by the late 70's, but still en vogue in the late 90's (when I graduated HS). They care far too much about self esteem and student's feelings, and far to little for making the students perform. I believe that I did well in spite of many of my teachers instead of because of their efforts. Only a handful of my teachers actually challenged me, and that's because they didn't accept excuses or care too much about how a 'C' or a 'D' made me feel. Those rare grades made me feel bad, but they also motivated me to improve my performance (and not because I was getting paid for A's as many of my peers were).
Re:Real World (Score:3, Interesting)
Why is this an issue in a global connected world, with different timezones and artificial light? The tendency of "Millenials" would be that they accept more flexibility in work, yet fit it into their lifestyle and are allowed to shift their hours around. (teleworking, catching up hours after 5, some even come in at 7 to be able to leave at 3)...
I walk in at work between 10 and 11am. My clients know that if they book me earlier I'll show up, but am useless all day. It's something I wished wasn't so, but simply "sleeping earlier" just throws me off balance or I'm laying awake in bed.
My schooltime was hell because of this; I dragged myself through classes but was more trying to stay awake as being able to pay attention... Just one hour more in bed would've been a world of difference to me and I would not have the perception of suffering through it and fighting each morning with myself to get up and through the day to stay awake.
For some reason, my biorithm is delayed compared to the "general population"; I get productive and creative in the afternoon and have it peak around midnight to wind down and end up going to sleep around 3-4am. Before noon, I'm waking up and useless, it's when I generally follow up on email but don't get anything significant done.
I do identify with the problems described as delayed sleep phase syndrome [wikipedia.org]
So again, I cope well, I get my work done and get praised. You can't be creative or brilliant in just a certain timeslice, it's about getting your work done. Nobody cares when; you have to wait for Singapore to wake up to start working to get your issues resolved, the US to wake up to go through your communication and get a reply... I have my 8 hours a day (and more) I'm comitted to my clients, but never 9-5.
Re:What About The Parents? (Score:4, Interesting)
Why do you worry about your daughter's virginity but not your son's? Is it somehow magically more important in daughters?
10k years of evolution, but sexism is still running rampart...
Re:Real World (Score:3, Interesting)
We used to run this way. Most of the programmers would come in about 11AM, work until 4 or 5 at the office. Usually if we needed to have a meeting or they needed something from one of the other people, it worked out well to have everyone in the same place. Then they'd go home and usually work again from 10PM - 2AM or so from home. Sometimes they'd come back to the office (all had 24 hours access cards). We were able to run like this for about the first year to 18 months until the product started shipping. And the bulk of our clients were small retail outlets that started about 8AM local time and ended about 5PM local time. Typically, we'd field more tech support calls right at 8AM than any other time of the day. So we had to be there because often times it really was a show stopping problem for the client.
We tried setting up an office system that would forward calls to cell phones, but half the time he employees wouldn't pick up. Either the phone was off, in another room, battery dead, or they simply slept through it. In the end we had to make sure at least two people were scheduled at 8AM whether they liked it or now.
Re:What About The Parents? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:What About The Parents? (Score:3, Interesting)
You joke, but I remember on my 15th birthday I had the option of going to a comic book and game convention, or a school dance. It was a tough decision for a 15-year-old. I ultimately went to the dance and ended up hooking up with my first girlfriend as a result of it--which surprised me more than anybody. If I'd gone to that comic convention I'd probably still be a virgin to this day.
Re:What About The Parents? (Score:3, Interesting)