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Opinion | Let Teenagers Sleep In
Three out of every four students in grades 9 to 12 fail to sleep the minimum of eight hours that the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for their age group. And sleep deprivation is unremittingly bad news. Anyone who talks about sleep as if it's some kind of inconvenience and getting less of it is a virtue should be challenged. These people are dangerous.
At its most basic, insufficient sleep results in reduced attention and impaired memory, hindering student progress and lowering grades. More alarmingly, sleep deprivation is likely to lead to mood and emotional problems, increasing the risk of mental illness. Chronic sleep deprivation is also a major risk factor for obesity, Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease and cancer. As if this weren't enough, it also makes falling asleep at the wheel much more likely.
In 2014, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that middle and high schools start no earlier than 8:30 a.m., a policy now backed by the American Medical Association, the C.D.C. and many other health organizations.
[...] Whenever schools have managed the transition to a later start time, students get more sleep, attendance goes up, grades improve and there is a significant reduction in car accidents. The RAND Corporation estimated that opening school doors after 8:30 a.m. would contribute at least $83 billion to the national economy within a decade through improved educational outcomes and reduced car crash rates. The Brookings Institution calculates that later school start times would lead to an average increase in lifetime earnings of $17,500.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 25 2018, @05:18AM (34 children)
Don't ask the teenagers go to school at all.
Sack all teachers, close the schools and calculate the cost savings - about $700 billions or more over the next decade, right?
Relax the age of consent and see the teenage porn industry booming instead. MAGA!
(Score: 2, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday September 25 2018, @05:26AM (25 children)
You joke but the whole "age of consent" thing needs some serious reworking. Any laws that say someone whose mind is going to be on sex half the day isn't allowed to have any are pretty much the stupidest laws ever written.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 25 2018, @06:30AM
Some states have the age of consent at 16 with close-in-age exemptions that could possibly adjust that down to 13 or 14. That should mostly cover puberty. However, these state laws are inconsistent. Probably very confusing for a minor reading them (I know, like that would even happen). Even under-18s can end up being prosecuted, see New York. And that doesn't even cover the sexting laws.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 25 2018, @06:39AM (21 children)
It does need reworking, but not in the way you think. The age of consent needs to be moved to 25, because that's about when the brain finishes developing. It's too risky to allow sex before that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 25 2018, @06:56AM
I prefer fresh brains.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 25 2018, @08:16AM (3 children)
You sound like Russian lawmakers, which seem to believe that any problem (perceived or real) can be solved by making it illegal.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday September 25 2018, @08:31AM (2 children)
Ummm... really? No shit? You reckon only the Russian ones worth the mention [wikipedia.org]?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 25 2018, @08:47AM (1 child)
'Tis where I live, which is why I mentioned those.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday September 25 2018, @08:53AM
Make sense.
The behavior is not restricted to Russian politicians though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 5, Interesting) by c0lo on Tuesday September 25 2018, @08:27AM (11 children)
Heh. Ages you say? How about adding another one: the economic independence age [forbes.com]?
Apropos "big purchases" - here's a nice chart of productivity vs wages '48 to '13 [imgix.net]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2, Troll) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday September 25 2018, @10:32AM (2 children)
It is hard to afford cars and homes when you spend all your money on beard oil.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 5, Touché) by c0lo on Tuesday September 25 2018, @10:38AM (1 child)
So true. When all your disposable income is the $3 worth of beard oil, there's no way in hell you can afford a car.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday September 26 2018, @01:54PM
It's artisanal.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Gaaark on Tuesday September 25 2018, @02:55PM (6 children)
So, what changed in the Nixon/Ford era that began this?
What laws changed?
What did lobbyists get?
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday September 25 2018, @03:32PM (3 children)
I don't know.
Maybe they tricked Nixon into thinking "conservative" and "conservationist" are the same so he set up EPA [wikipedia.org]?
(large grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday September 26 2018, @01:52AM (2 children)
They more or less are by definition if not in practice. Conservatives' fundamental characteristic is wanting things to change as little as possible. That includes the environment.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday September 26 2018, @02:41AM (1 child)
Meh, theoretically.
In real life, this leads to a paradoxes via
Honestly, can you say you don't see this mindset quite common in the "conservatives" of today?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday September 26 2018, @01:22PM
Oh it's common enough. It also means I don't consider them actual conservatives any more than I consider progressives to be actual liberals though.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 25 2018, @07:37PM (1 child)
Computerization and lessened need for human labor?
The loss of the Vietnam War and needing to let the US dollar float?
Opening to mainland China and cheap imports from Asia?
Exhausted energy sources in the US, and unionization of foreign oil suppliers?
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday September 25 2018, @09:07PM
I'd add the destruction of unions in North America as well.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday September 25 2018, @10:07PM
The real problem isn't that wages are moderately stagnant, but rather that developed world societies are geared towards increasing the cost of living (with the US taking the lead in a number of ways). A common example is high cost of real estate. Notice the use of the words "home", "housing", etc in the quote you inserted? Residential real estate in the US went up a lot more than wages did - it crudely tripled [cnbc.com] over the 1948-2013 period in the US, adjusted for inflation while wages only doubled.
(Score: 3, Touché) by c0lo on Tuesday September 25 2018, @09:19AM
Just from curiosity: exactly what is that risk again?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday September 25 2018, @01:12PM (1 child)
The brain doesn't need to finish developing to be able to make responsible choices. If that's been your experience, your parents were shitty parents.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Tuesday September 25 2018, @10:11PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 29 2018, @03:01PM
I'm surprised this was modded insightful rather than funny.
It is true that the brain doesn't finish developing until 25, but if you follow this reasoning through, you end up not allowing anyone to make any decisions until they are 25, and how ridiculous is that?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday September 25 2018, @10:35AM (1 child)
It is a little strange that laws in most states forbid teenagers having sex while allowing them to drive vehicles that can kill people. As a public safety measure, it should be the opposite.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Funny) by c0lo on Tuesday September 25 2018, @01:19PM
Ummm... allow them to have sex that can kill people? Is this more... humane so to speak?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by julian on Tuesday September 25 2018, @07:48AM
That escalated quickly
(Score: 2) by theluggage on Tuesday September 25 2018, @11:34AM
...apart from the complete collapse of industry caused by the sudden withdrawal of free childcare.
What, you think the financial argument that keeps the public school system going is the intangible value of an educated workforce 15 years down the line? Maybe once, but since the financial world realised that if both parents could go to work they could afford higher rents and mortgage repayments...
That's one reason why schools are under pressure to start classes at ugh-o'clock - gotta get the progeny packed off to school before Mom and Dad leave for work.
Of course, come the glorious AI revolution when nobody has a job anyway, your plan might just work, and the teenagers can learn everything they need by browsing
pornKahn academy...(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday September 25 2018, @11:56AM (5 children)
My guess is more of the former, less of the latter. Kids already spend "most" of their school time hanging out in group projects, accepting political indoctrination "agree with my politics to get an A", and semi-recreational stuff like gym, high school sports, hobbies masquerading as classes (or is it the other way around?). Its fairly unheard of for a K-12 student to spend much time on something actually vocationally useful, and even if it is, its never recognized in the economy, have to do it all over again at vo-tech school or university.
Given that, and given trends of the economic system requiring an ever smaller fraction of the population to participate, I suspect schools will simply give up on academics and vocational training and go pure recreation and indoctrination. That makes everyone happy. High school will be a place for teens to hang out.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday September 25 2018, @10:14PM (4 children)
Or more accurately, teen prison.
What trends? Not seeing that in the US or China, for example.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday September 26 2018, @01:08PM (3 children)
Short term, no, long term everything follows the path of ag and industrial production where eventually the graph approaches 2% of the population doing all the food production or whatever.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday September 28 2018, @04:29AM (2 children)
Then find 50 things for people to do.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Friday September 28 2018, @11:10AM (1 child)
With our 1800s era education system geared around prepping for industrial revolution factory jobs, most of the 50 things found are "pills" "meth" etc.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday September 28 2018, @12:18PM
And yet we're not having all that much trouble despite the weaknesses of the education system. I think things would be much better if we weren't trying so hard to get in the way of employment in the first place.