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posted by chromas on Tuesday September 25 2018, @05:12AM   Printer-friendly
from the http://i.imgur.com/z4z67Ur.gif dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 2) by Alfred on Tuesday September 25 2018, @07:04PM (1 child)

    by Alfred (4006) on Tuesday September 25 2018, @07:04PM (#739818) Journal
    I like what you are proposing. I would let the AP stuff be any time of day, let those smart enough to do AP do it when it is convenient for them. If that is before lunch then great, do that.

    I am all for letting people prove competency and going on with life. Like if you can pass a trig final then your high school math requirement is done. Problem is that school isn't about education, its about making an indoctrinated drones. It's not about smart or capability or intelligence or critical thinking.

    In my day, everyone of every aptitude was put in the same Government class, probably because there were no pre-requisites. So the teacher had to cater to the class clown or villiage idiot and anyone of any interest or intellect was neglected until their interest was destroyed and their intellect hindered. This is just one case from across many subjects where the students are subjected to the subject instead of a system where they are allowed to run ahead with their interests and aptitudes and actuyall be great at something. Nope, anyone with drive must be driven like a square peg through a round hole until they fit the preconceived generalization of a student. I hate how teachers hate it when students think, sorry for the inconvenience of you doing your job. Teachers can do the greatest work but they more often do the greatest harm.

    The STEM thing annoys me too. but it won't go away because there is so much money to be had in selling STEM and the related accessories.

    I don't think math and science will be relegated to after school clubs. Well, not in name. Real science and math are disappearing though. The name of science will be kept to further agendas and build the faith in science that the followers don't even realize is bad science...Ok, nevermind, you were right, math and science are dying and you will only find it after school and probably not on campus.

    Sorry, started soapboxxing. Schools are screwed.
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  • (Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday September 26 2018, @01:15PM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 26 2018, @01:15PM (#740149)

    Originally higher ed was invented for the nobility because kids are smart enough to be quite well informed by their teens but for millennia no one has figured out a way to teach calmer lower testosterone wisdom of the mid 20s.

    You'd have to find something for smart kids to do from their teens until their mid 20s, one way or another. Draft? National Service aka peace corps? Prison? Schools as prison?