Petition: Later MCPS school start times

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no personal stake in this, as my own kids have aged out of k-12 education, but I strongly believe that schools should start later in accordance with extensive and uncontroversial research showing the health benefits. The benefits are indisputable; it's just the costs and logistics that are a problem.

I would also point out that this country's obesity epidemic started in the 1980s, just after many (maybe most) public school districts adopted staggered school schedules to allow a single fleet of buses to provide transportation to elementary, middle (or junior high back then), and high school and as suburban sprawl lead to fewer kids walking or biking to school. In the late 1960s, 50% of children walked to school, and school started after 8 a.m. In 2019, my own kids in a neighboring district to MSPS could not walk to school (high school is eight miles away) and caught the high school bus at 6:35 a.m. to be transported to school by 7:00 am and then wait around outside until school started at 7:25 a.m., so that the buses could start their middle school run. There's no part of that arrangement that serves kids' best interests. It's unhealthy, inefficient, and setting them up to struggle.

You are lucky you got buses. We have to drive ours almost two miles. The obesity is a combination of genetics, lack of sports and exercise and eating habits. Later start time cannot fix that. If kids are not in sports parents can take kids before or after school you a walk or bike ride or work out.

You clearly did not have kids in mcps if you think a single fleet of buses would work and since you said your kids were never in mcps why are you posting here?

If you did not like your kids getting to school that early you could have driven them like we do. Why were you too lazy to walk with them or drive them?

Go away, troll. Why am I posting? Because I think kids' health is important. You should care too. Also, my kids are athletes and not obese, but that doesn't stop me from advocating for conditions to set as many kids as possible up for academic success and good health. Maybe you should try caring about others and not just your own family's needs.

For academic and personal success, school times are better earlier so kids can do activities and work after school and still fit in homework. If you are worried about obesity sports are important and that means an earlier start.

If school start times were later, the length of the school day and sporting events wouldn’t change. The number of hours in a day wouldn’t change. The only thing that would change is to schedule these things optimally for teens’ circadian rhythms, which would help the majority of students increase their sleep. If you believe parental enforcement of a sleep regimen is so easy, take comfort in the knowledge that you can parent your children through such a scheduling change. Easy peasy.

If we have sports 45 minutes after school they will have to get pushed back due to transportation and what time kids are out of school which means they get home later or in our case then to another activity back at school and then homework. So, your kids are in no activities and you will not drive them. So, they can manage with what the school has to offer or you can homeschool them.

We are in the same boat. Our kids have sports, work, and homework in the afternoons and evenings. Pushing school back will simply mean they are up even later doing homework, and then likely up early in order to finish. As for sleep, a later schedule won’t fix a thing.

And I still think the answer is taking devices away at night.

Same! My kid gets up at 6am to make the bus each day and with their 8th period and ECs they often aren't home until after 5pm. I just don't think making this later is going to help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m impressed that this thread is still active. I’m a HS teacher and on the side of a later start. I wish I could invite y’all to my first period class. My heart goes out to my tired and sleep deprived students.

I'm guessing the tired sleepy K-5 students would feel similarly.

Poster you are responding to.
You have a lack of knowledge of physiology for young children and teens. Teens need as much or even more sleep than young children. This is a fact society seems ignorant of. Also, teenagers sleep cycles are shifted due to hormones so they naturally stay up later and sleep longer in the morning. If you don’t understand teenage development, best not to comment perhaps

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no personal stake in this, as my own kids have aged out of k-12 education, but I strongly believe that schools should start later in accordance with extensive and uncontroversial research showing the health benefits. The benefits are indisputable; it's just the costs and logistics that are a problem.

I would also point out that this country's obesity epidemic started in the 1980s, just after many (maybe most) public school districts adopted staggered school schedules to allow a single fleet of buses to provide transportation to elementary, middle (or junior high back then), and high school and as suburban sprawl lead to fewer kids walking or biking to school. In the late 1960s, 50% of children walked to school, and school started after 8 a.m. In 2019, my own kids in a neighboring district to MSPS could not walk to school (high school is eight miles away) and caught the high school bus at 6:35 a.m. to be transported to school by 7:00 am and then wait around outside until school started at 7:25 a.m., so that the buses could start their middle school run. There's no part of that arrangement that serves kids' best interests. It's unhealthy, inefficient, and setting them up to struggle.

You are lucky you got buses. We have to drive ours almost two miles. The obesity is a combination of genetics, lack of sports and exercise and eating habits. Later start time cannot fix that. If kids are not in sports parents can take kids before or after school you a walk or bike ride or work out.

You clearly did not have kids in mcps if you think a single fleet of buses would work and since you said your kids were never in mcps why are you posting here?

If you did not like your kids getting to school that early you could have driven them like we do. Why were you too lazy to walk with them or drive them?

Go away, troll. Why am I posting? Because I think kids' health is important. You should care too. Also, my kids are athletes and not obese, but that doesn't stop me from advocating for conditions to set as many kids as possible up for academic success and good health. Maybe you should try caring about others and not just your own family's needs.

For academic and personal success, school times are better earlier so kids can do activities and work after school and still fit in homework. If you are worried about obesity sports are important and that means an earlier start.

If school start times were later, the length of the school day and sporting events wouldn’t change. The number of hours in a day wouldn’t change. The only thing that would change is to schedule these things optimally for teens’ circadian rhythms, which would help the majority of students increase their sleep. If you believe parental enforcement of a sleep regimen is so easy, take comfort in the knowledge that you can parent your children through such a scheduling change. Easy peasy.

If we have sports 45 minutes after school they will have to get pushed back due to transportation and what time kids are out of school which means they get home later or in our case then to another activity back at school and then homework. So, your kids are in no activities and you will not drive them. So, they can manage with what the school has to offer or you can homeschool them.

We are in the same boat. Our kids have sports, work, and homework in the afternoons and evenings. Pushing school back will simply mean they are up even later doing homework, and then likely up early in order to finish. As for sleep, a later schedule won’t fix a thing.

And I still think the answer is taking devices away at night.

Same! My kid gets up at 6am to make the bus each day and with their 8th period and ECs they often aren't home until after 5pm. I just don't think making this later is going to help.

Many kids don't have devices at night. Ours don't. We drive ours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m impressed that this thread is still active. I’m a HS teacher and on the side of a later start. I wish I could invite y’all to my first period class. My heart goes out to my tired and sleep deprived students.

I'm guessing the tired sleepy K-5 students would feel similarly.

Poster you are responding to.
You have a lack of knowledge of physiology for young children and teens. Teens need as much or even more sleep than young children. This is a fact society seems ignorant of. Also, teenagers sleep cycles are shifted due to hormones so they naturally stay up later and sleep longer in the morning. If you don’t understand teenage development, best not to comment perhaps

Oh the excuses you make...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m impressed that this thread is still active. I’m a HS teacher and on the side of a later start. I wish I could invite y’all to my first period class. My heart goes out to my tired and sleep deprived students.

I'm guessing the tired sleepy K-5 students would feel similarly.

Poster you are responding to.
You have a lack of knowledge of physiology for young children and teens. Teens need as much or even more sleep than young children. This is a fact society seems ignorant of. Also, teenagers sleep cycles are shifted due to hormones so they naturally stay up later and sleep longer in the morning. If you don’t understand teenage development, best not to comment perhaps

Oh the excuses you make...

If they just tried setting their clock ahead a couple hours, this wouldn't be a problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m impressed that this thread is still active. I’m a HS teacher and on the side of a later start. I wish I could invite y’all to my first period class. My heart goes out to my tired and sleep deprived students.

I'm guessing the tired sleepy K-5 students would feel similarly.

K-5 kids aren't adolescents with later, time-shifted circadian rhythms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m impressed that this thread is still active. I’m a HS teacher and on the side of a later start. I wish I could invite y’all to my first period class. My heart goes out to my tired and sleep deprived students.

I'm guessing the tired sleepy K-5 students would feel similarly.

Poster you are responding to.
You have a lack of knowledge of physiology for young children and teens. Teens need as much or even more sleep than young children. This is a fact society seems ignorant of. Also, teenagers sleep cycles are shifted due to hormones so they naturally stay up later and sleep longer in the morning. If you don’t understand teenage development, best not to comment perhaps

Oh the excuses you make...

If you are ignorant and refuse to pay attention to scientific research, there is nothing else one can say. Hopefully your kids are developing better analytical and critical thinking skills in MCPS than you clearly possess

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m impressed that this thread is still active. I’m a HS teacher and on the side of a later start. I wish I could invite y’all to my first period class. My heart goes out to my tired and sleep deprived students.

I'm guessing the tired sleepy K-5 students would feel similarly.

Poster you are responding to.
You have a lack of knowledge of physiology for young children and teens. Teens need as much or even more sleep than young children. This is a fact society seems ignorant of. Also, teenagers sleep cycles are shifted due to hormones so they naturally stay up later and sleep longer in the morning. If you don’t understand teenage development, best not to comment perhaps

Oh the excuses you make...

If you are ignorant and refuse to pay attention to scientific research, there is nothing else one can say. Hopefully your kids are developing better analytical and critical thinking skills in MCPS than you clearly possess

Grow up and parent your kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:High schoolers are only going to stay up later. They won't get any extra sleep. My high schooler already stays up so late doing homework. I can only imagine what would happen if he got home from after school activities even later than he does now because school doesn't start until later.

This, everything including activities would shift later and it’s an issue for kids who work.

This. Or they would make some HS sports practice start before school like they do at at my friend's school in another county where school does start later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:High schoolers are only going to stay up later. They won't get any extra sleep. My high schooler already stays up so late doing homework. I can only imagine what would happen if he got home from after school activities even later than he does now because school doesn't start until later.

This, everything including activities would shift later and it’s an issue for kids who work.

This. Or they would make some HS sports practice start before school like they do at at my friend's school in another county where school does start later.

Or they just leave things like now and the kids who are tired start going to bed earlier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m impressed that this thread is still active. I’m a HS teacher and on the side of a later start. I wish I could invite y’all to my first period class. My heart goes out to my tired and sleep deprived students.

I'm guessing the tired sleepy K-5 students would feel similarly.

Poster you are responding to.
You have a lack of knowledge of physiology for young children and teens. Teens need as much or even more sleep than young children. This is a fact society seems ignorant of. Also, teenagers sleep cycles are shifted due to hormones so they naturally stay up later and sleep longer in the morning. If you don’t understand teenage development, best not to comment perhaps

Oh the excuses you make...

If you are ignorant and refuse to pay attention to scientific research, there is nothing else one can say. Hopefully your kids are developing better analytical and critical thinking skills in MCPS than you clearly possess

It's one of many factors. This has led to the decisions we have today which seems like the best compromise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m impressed that this thread is still active. I’m a HS teacher and on the side of a later start. I wish I could invite y’all to my first period class. My heart goes out to my tired and sleep deprived students.

I'm guessing the tired sleepy K-5 students would feel similarly.

Poster you are responding to.
You have a lack of knowledge of physiology for young children and teens. Teens need as much or even more sleep than young children. This is a fact society seems ignorant of. Also, teenagers sleep cycles are shifted due to hormones so they naturally stay up later and sleep longer in the morning. If you don’t understand teenage development, best not to comment perhaps

Oh the excuses you make...

If you are ignorant and refuse to pay attention to scientific research, there is nothing else one can say. Hopefully your kids are developing better analytical and critical thinking skills in MCPS than you clearly possess

Grow up and parent your kids.

I bet you use corporal punishment, too. Spare the rod and all that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:High schoolers are only going to stay up later. They won't get any extra sleep. My high schooler already stays up so late doing homework. I can only imagine what would happen if he got home from after school activities even later than he does now because school doesn't start until later.

This, everything including activities would shift later and it’s an issue for kids who work.

This. Or they would make some HS sports practice start before school like they do at at my friend's school in another county where school does start later.

Or they just leave things like now and the kids who are tired start going to bed earlier.

It's not about being tired. It's about making schedules work. Some coaches can't wait to have practices or clubs at 4 pm and some kids can't either. Some kids have jobs or get home to watch their younger siblings or go to another practice for a travel team. Getting them in school later just means they get out later which will push all of the activities that they do to a later time. Either way, the kids will be tired. My friend's kid at Loudoun County has a later start time and he's still exhausted with all the activities that he has to do plus homework.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m impressed that this thread is still active. I’m a HS teacher and on the side of a later start. I wish I could invite y’all to my first period class. My heart goes out to my tired and sleep deprived students.

I'm guessing the tired sleepy K-5 students would feel similarly.

Poster you are responding to.
You have a lack of knowledge of physiology for young children and teens. Teens need as much or even more sleep than young children. This is a fact society seems ignorant of. Also, teenagers sleep cycles are shifted due to hormones so they naturally stay up later and sleep longer in the morning. If you don’t understand teenage development, best not to comment perhaps

Teenagers during the 1800s stayed up later and slept in? Nope. If you believe teenagers need more sleep (they don't), then take the phone away, lights out at 9pm. That's 9 hours of sleep for a 6am wake up. If they're having trouble falling asleep, read a book or take some melatonin. The whole system is not changing the schedule because you're a lazy parent raising lazy kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m impressed that this thread is still active. I’m a HS teacher and on the side of a later start. I wish I could invite y’all to my first period class. My heart goes out to my tired and sleep deprived students.

I'm guessing the tired sleepy K-5 students would feel similarly.

Poster you are responding to.
You have a lack of knowledge of physiology for young children and teens. Teens need as much or even more sleep than young children. This is a fact society seems ignorant of. Also, teenagers sleep cycles are shifted due to hormones so they naturally stay up later and sleep longer in the morning. If you don’t understand teenage development, best not to comment perhaps

Oh the excuses you make...

If you are ignorant and refuse to pay attention to scientific research, there is nothing else one can say. Hopefully your kids are developing better analytical and critical thinking skills in MCPS than you clearly possess

Grow up and parent your kids.

I bet you use corporal punishment, too. Spare the rod and all that.

This is the best you can do. Drive your kids if you want them to sleep in like the rest of us do. Put a little effort into them.