What Confederacy of Imbiciles Is Working To Prevent A Later Start Time For MCPS High Schools?

[Anonymous]

Op just go private. I’m so pissed off by my school times that we’re going private next year. I can’t deal with the terrible times and the lack of aftercare and before care of options. At my school only the impoverished kids were offered care options and they filled up

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I think it’s due to high school sports and other activities. I think it’s fine. My teens were in bed by 10 anyway.

Google "school start times" and "mental health" or "depression." The evidence on this is just overwhelming. I'm glad your teens were fine, but we are actually dealing with a crisis in teen mental health and kids' lives are at stake, so please show a bit of concern for others. Not everyone is wired the same way.

And no matter what they do it will effect a different group of kids. Can't you grasp this?

Assuming you are referencing athletes, how do other districts with a reverse start schedule handle this? Just curious.

If you're referencing kids who would no longer be able to be picked up by MS/HS siblings, surely there is a way to provide low-cost subsidized aftercare to families who need it. Heck, then you could include kids who have no older siblings and have to fend for themselves in the afternoon, or allow their parents to work fulltime. Aftercare, relatively speaking, would be relatively low-cost compared to other programs MCPS funds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op just go private. I’m so pissed off by my school times that we’re going private next year. I can’t deal with the terrible times and the lack of aftercare and before care of options. At my school only the impoverished kids were offered care options and they filled up

Wait. What? What school is this? That's something I've only ever seen happen in DCPS, not in Montgomery County.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op just go private. I’m so pissed off by my school times that we’re going private next year. I can’t deal with the terrible times and the lack of aftercare and before care of options. At my school only the impoverished kids were offered care options and they filled up

Wait. What? What school is this? That's something I've only ever seen happen in DCPS, not in Montgomery County.

That’s because aftercare is contracted out in MCPS.

[Anonymous]

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Like I said, the science is pretty clear that sending High School students to school at 7:45 is damaging. At the bare minimum the start times should be reversed. HS students should start at 9, elementary schoolers at 7:45. As far as after school jobs and sports, I would think that education and student's mental health should be the priority here.

I was taught younger kids need more sleep. I would rather a high schooler start early than ES. My high school started at 8, but I think all the levels started around the same time.

Younger kids need more sleep and go to bed earlier. This is directly backwards to the known, proven teen healthy sleep patterns. Links to the relevant data on that have already been posted here.

The idea that high schoolers should have to be at school at 7:30AM every day because their parents feel entitled to use them as free babysitters is asinine.

What is entitled and asinine is assuming that families whose older lids are watching the younger have a true choice. For many of my students, it is helping keep the family afloat financially because aftercare is both expensive and in short supply.

Yet another example of thinking that the health of ALL kids should suffer because no one can be bothered to think of other ways to address social problems. There is no dispute that later is better for all teenagers. It's one of the few things that is universally agreed upon.

+1. I have no doubt childcare is a big issue for many low income families-but not all of them have an older child to watch the younger ones in the afternoon, so there’s still a gap there too. If childcare was truly the limiting factor to changing start times, why not address that head on and come up with ways to provide/fund aftercare programs for these families.

It seems like the issue is that people with kids in HS not ES feel the current start time is inconvenient for them so everyone else needs to cater to their whims.

Actually, my child is in ES right now but the research in this is pretty clear. Later start times are better for HS students.

+1 How is this about whims? It's not inconvenient for HS students to start later, unless you need your teen to provide childcare. It is a matter of health.

Seems more like it's a matter of convenience for the OP. I'm sure it would impact the health of younger children too who are even less able to cope with this.

How would starting earlier be bad for younger kids' health? No one who know anything about this issue asserts that.

As a resident of another county whose kids started school at 9:25 during elementary school, I can attest that it is much worse for younger kids to start late. First, younger kids go to bed earlier and wake up earlier. That leaves two hours of morning time to be filled. What do you do? Save homework for mornings? This is not a time when most children run outside and play. Many kids are already in before care and most parents don't want to send stinky, sweaty kids to school. Late start times mean less daylight for outdoor activities and play after school during the winter. The absolute worst part is that when there are weather delays, schools starts at 11:25. Even if you disregard work issues and adult convenience, I can't see any health or logistical benefit to having elementary school kids start school after 9:00 a.m.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op just go private. I’m so pissed off by my school times that we’re going private next year. I can’t deal with the terrible times and the lack of aftercare and before care of options. At my school only the impoverished kids were offered care options and they filled up

Wait. What? What school is this? That's something I've only ever seen happen in DCPS, not in Montgomery County.

Same here. I've heard of child care spots filling up because of competition for spots never heard of them being rationed out based on income

[Anonymous]

I’m a HS teacher and first period is not great. Many kids have their heads down because they are so tired. These kids are not getting enough sleep. Academics should come before sports. Many other districts have figured out later start times. I’m not sure why MCPS can’t get its act together

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a HS teacher and first period is not great. Many kids have their heads down because they are so tired. These kids are not getting enough sleep. Academics should come before sports. Many other districts have figured out later start times. I’m not sure why MCPS can’t get its act together

+1 My high schooler is so happy to be back in person at school, but the one things he misses from last year is being able to sleep in later. I hear a lot that he’s tired.

[Anonymous]

I’d love for my middle and high school kids to start later

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:It’s “Confederacy of Dunces.”

I'm guessing that OP couldn't figure out how to spell dunce either, so went for imbecile.

A borgeioise obsession with spelling is an unerring sign of a mediocre thinker.

bourgeois

Well done Karen, here's a sticker.

Do. That's not what Karen means. You can't fail in both spelling and definitions.

Anyway
My daughter gets home from sports practice at 7pm and we luve 5 minutes from school. I don't see how a later start time is feasible

My high school started at 9a. We had some sports/ extra curricular stuff in the mornings.

Regardless sports aren't really part of school just an optional extracurricular and hardly a major consideration.

I'm sorry your kid can't compete physically with their peers but no one's cutting athletics.

Some areas of the south and Midwest have sports meet before school and then again after vs a longer period after school so that might be a consideration.

Our kids don’t give a crap about mouthbreather nonsense like sports and they will be your kids’ employers one day.

the troll is strong in this one!

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Probably includes working parents of young children who’d rather not have to cover another hour of childcare in the afternoon. High school athletes who get home late enough as it is already. High school students with after school jobs. Is that enough imbeciles for you?

Not to mention all of the families that rely on older siblings for childcare. That was a major factor in the 2015 report if I recall correctly. Between older siblings providing care, and kids who needed money from after-school jobs, the later start time was going to have a severe effect on the financial well-being of some of the most vulnerable families in the district.

As a parent of an ES student, I have a hard time following the childcare piece. Our bus does not come until 9am- what parent can wait until 9am to start their commute to work (in normal times)? Most families end up utilizing before AND after care. And are there really that many young kids with teenage siblings to watch them in the afternoon?

I thought it was really more about preserving time for after school jobs and sports. But the trade off is not enough sleep and lower school performance.

When DD was in elementary school, we used before care because we could afford it. The low income parents dropped their kids off an hour early, and the kids had to wait outside the school in all weather for the doors to open. Everyone doesn’t live like you do.

Some of these parents work in the service industry anyway so can take later shifts. So they don’t necessarily need morning coverage- not everyone works as early as you do.

Wow I wonder why none of those parents thought of asking for later shifts instead of leaving their kids out in the cold for an hour? Were they in need of your wise counsel? Or is it possible that it’s not quite as simple as you suggest? The reality is that some of those moms had to get to their jobs taking care of the children of affluent parents so those parents could get to work.

[Anonymous]

My kid loved spring of 2020, with classes starting after noon for HS.

[Anonymous]

Part of school, especially high school, is preparing for life. How will these kids function thinking the day starts at 10am.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Part of school, especially high school, is preparing for life. How will these kids function thinking the day starts at 10am.

Many people's workdays do start at 10 am. Other people work the night shift or the swing shift. And yet other people never know when they will be assigned to work, from one week to the next. We could incorporate all of that into the high school scheduling too!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Part of school, especially high school, is preparing for life. How will these kids function thinking the day starts at 10am.

Many people's workdays do start at 10 am. Other people work the night shift or the swing shift. And yet other people never know when they will be assigned to work, from one week to the next. We could incorporate all of that into the high school scheduling too!

OMG, love this idea. Sometimes you don't get any "shifts" (classes) some weeks you get overtime! Sometimes weekend, sometimes evenings... no, you can't count on having your mom's birthday off or going to a family wedding, either. Rock on pp rock on, let's toughen them up for life in late capitalism.