Anyone else object to starting Fairfax County middle schools earlier just to start hs later?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
My middle school student loves the early 7:20 start time because it leave plenty of "free" time in the afternoons. Sports, Homework, Outside, Friendships, etc...

Too much free time for teenagers cause problems

Yes with problem children. Fill their time with more meaning experiences. BTW -- It is part of your job as a parent not just a pay check

[Anonymous]

I object to all of the cross the board changes!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The consensus was essentially that middle schoolers could suck it up for 2 years of early starts in order to benefit from having the later start time for 4 years of HS.
Any option that provided more equality across start times would just cost too much $$$$, so this is what we're stuck with.

This is exactly what I object to. My kids can walk to and from high school, they have 30 minutes on the bus to middle school. Middle schoolers are often also taking high school courses, like algebra and languges, so their transcripts do matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
My middle school student loves the early 7:20 start time because it leave plenty of "free" time in the afternoons. Sports, Homework, Outside, Friendships, etc...

Too much free time for teenagers cause problems

My teenager can barely get his homework done with 2 hours a day of sports practice, I don't know about yours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
My middle school student loves the early 7:20 start time because it leave plenty of "free" time in the afternoons. Sports, Homework, Outside, Friendships, etc...

Too much free time for teenagers cause problems

My teenager can barely get his homework done with 2 hours a day of sports practice, I don't know about yours.

Solution: TAKE HIM OUT OF SPORTS - they are optional

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
My middle school student loves the early 7:20 start time because it leave plenty of "free" time in the afternoons. Sports, Homework, Outside, Friendships, etc...

Too much free time for teenagers cause problems

My teenager can barely get his homework done with 2 hours a day of sports practice, I don't know about yours.

I was 11:09. My kids are in Kindergarten and preschool. My middle school (in Asia) was never ended before 5pm and with loads of homework my middle school life was very fulfilling. I just worry about my kids will have too much free time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just think it's funny how so many people are worried about their up-coming ms students having to go to school at 7:30, when thousands of ms students in FCPS have been doing this for the last 40 years! Like you never noticed that other kids (at the secondary schools) had a raw deal? And suddenly now that it's your kid, it's unacceptable?

Suck it up. It's your kids' turn to catch the 6:40 a.m. bus.

So true. Once it affects someone personally, then it becomes unacceptable, but if it's someone else's kid waiting outside in the dark? Oh well, too bad.

Our middle school has always started at 7:40am, so 7:30 won't be a huge difference. The kids will still be waiting outside in the pitch dark for a 6:20 bus.

It's always been unacceptable, no one thinks otherwise. Many of us were hoping for an across the board improvement. I don't know why people think it's about "turns" or "sucking it up" because things were done a certain way in the past, everyone deserves to suffer at some point. It's faulty thinking. There isn't one way that will work for all students and families, but it is ironic that a mission to start school later is actually starting school earlier.

Well, it's not about "turns"--- but the proposal IS an improvement for the majority of kids affected by early schedules now. It's not a 100% improvement, but it IS progress. So, the complaining we see here appears to be more about NIMBY (or not in my kid's schedule). There will be fewer kids with early schedules than there are right now. It's good for the majority... just not for you who have ms kids (not at secondary schools).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
My middle school student loves the early 7:20 start time because it leave plenty of "free" time in the afternoons. Sports, Homework, Outside, Friendships, etc...

Too much free time for teenagers cause problems

My teenager can barely get his homework done with 2 hours a day of sports practice, I don't know about yours.

I was 11:09. My kids are in Kindergarten and preschool. My middle school (in Asia) was never ended before 5pm and with loads of homework my middle school life was very fulfilling. I just worry about my kids will have too much free time.

But what time did you start?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These pampered high schoolers are going to be in fir a rude awakening when they graduate and have their first college class start at 7:30 with no parents to wake them or drive them to class halfway across campus,

Where did you go to college? Are you masochistic? My classes all started at 10 or later. I go a BSEE, not a fluff degree, if it matters. And very few jobs start earlier than 8, in central time or eastern time.

Yeah. This is not a great argument. For one, it ignores the fact that by college, most teens circadian rhythms have shifted again AND that very few college classes (or jobs for that matter) even start at 7:20. And to be circular, even if that were the case, by adulthood, it isn't even an issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why can't they actually make the full changes that would truly address the issue? This half-a$$ compromise doesn't do enough for the high schoolers, makes middle school worse, and leaves so many elementary schoolers sitting around waiting somewhere instead of in the classroom, learning, during their most alert hour of the morning!

No, no, my elementary aged children are not "naturally" up earlier. I am not for earlier start times for elementary at all.

[Anonymous]

Absolutely opposed to all of the changes!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 6th grader currently gets 10-11 hrs of sleep per night. She'd have to go to bed earlier than a toddler to get more than 9 hrs sleep. MS is hard enough. Why are we turning kids into sleepwalking zombies?

Why are we fairfax county parents insisting on more and more school and forcing the kids into a 9-5 work day?? They will be working soon enough. The fluff needs to be cut and these kids need to spend less hours in school. This is a big problem.

Yeah right, didn't you realize that many of the fcps parents would prefer their kids to be in school for the same amount of hours that they are at work (if not longer)! And no days off either, unless they don't have work that day.

[Anonymous]

I am disgusted so much money is being spent on a crappy "solution" that really does very little solving. I have worked with high school kids for ten years and none of them are excited about a mere extra 30 minutes. It is a change just to change and quiet a loud group of parents. This is the second decision by Garza that is not well thought out and certainly not worth the money. As a FCPS grad, I am truly disgusted at the state of the county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 6th grader currently gets 10-11 hrs of sleep per night. She'd have to go to bed earlier than a toddler to get more than 9 hrs sleep. MS is hard enough. Why are we turning kids into sleepwalking zombies?

Why are we fairfax county parents insisting on more and more school and forcing the kids into a 9-5 work day?? They will be working soon enough. The fluff needs to be cut and these kids need to spend less hours in school. This is a big problem.

Fewer hours in school? You must a SAHM, or think US education is still world class or something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
My middle school student loves the early 7:20 start time because it leave plenty of "free" time in the afternoons. Sports, Homework, Outside, Friendships, etc...

Too much free time for teenagers cause problems

My teenager can barely get his homework done with 2 hours a day of sports practice, I don't know about yours.

Solution: TAKE HIM OUT OF SPORTS - they are optional

Have you tried to get a student into U.VA or William and Mary lately with no extracurricular activities, just grades and SAT scores?