[HN Gopher] New California law requires high schools to start later
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       New California law requires high schools to start later
        
       Author : thnaks
       Score  : 161 points
       Date   : 2022-07-01 20:12 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (apnews.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (apnews.com)
        
       | antonymy wrote:
       | Works for California, I suppose. Where I grew up buses were
       | shared between schools so start times had to be staggered between
       | school levels, and because it was above the 45th Parallel North
       | our days were a lot shorter than the ones in California
       | especially in the winter. So there's only so many practical start
       | times you can have, and somebody's going to be getting up and
       | going to school before sunup or going home during sundown.
       | 
       | While letting yawning teenagers get more sleep seems obvious, the
       | lesser evil is having them get up while it's dark out instead of
       | making 10 year olds walk to the bus stop in darkness, or walk
       | home in twilight. Folks would drive their kids to school if they
       | could, my dad did for me and my little brother as much as
       | possible, but in a household where both parents have jobs, it's
       | not a realistic solution, and that was the reality for most
       | people in the district I lived in.
        
       | t_mann wrote:
       | There are probably few public policies that are so easy to
       | implement, have such consistent research backing and yet so often
       | go ignored than having school start later than 8pm.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | adrr wrote:
       | Reason is based around science. This seems like something that
       | can be easily tested with a high school where you can starts some
       | kids later and measure grade/test performance.
        
       | kpennell wrote:
       | One of the hardest times in my life was being 14 and absolutely
       | exhausted in school. I also added to it by signing up for an
       | early morning workout class. That combined with a dose of
       | adderall each day had me absolutely tired and wired. I got hurt
       | 3x in football and it just sent me into a spiral.
       | 
       | All that to say, glad to know that future generations of high
       | schools will be getting more rest.
        
         | kibwen wrote:
         | Same here, school started at 7:34 and the first period was
         | always a complete wash. Might as well have called it napping
         | class, or as close as you can get to napping while keeping your
         | eyes just open enough that the teacher doesn't call you out.
         | I've just looked it up, and it looks like my old school
         | district got the memo because these days the bell rings at
         | 8:09.
        
       | wnevets wrote:
       | I would've done much better in high school if I was able to start
       | later. Its absolutely insane this isn't nation wide.
        
       | bdowling wrote:
       | Does this affect private schools or home schooling?
        
       | adamw2k wrote:
       | Many folks are talking about bus schedules, but California hardly
       | offers transporation in most districts. Only 9% of children take
       | a bus to school [1] and that's been trending down for decades.
       | Pay more, get less; sad state of affairs.
       | 
       | [1]
       | https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-02-03/californ...
        
         | ravitation wrote:
         | Finally. There are these long comment threads talking about
         | high school students taking public transit/school buses, but
         | that just isn't how most high school students get to school. It
         | is unfortunate that mid/late teenagers are so dependent on
         | cars, which often means dependent on a parent or other adult,
         | but that's the type of cities we've built in this country.
        
         | hedora wrote:
         | I remember when they cut most of the busses in California. They
         | claimed it reduced their carbon footprint.
        
       | quartz wrote:
       | I hope this law doesn't prevent early morning extra-curricular
       | classes.
       | 
       | My high school started at 8:20 but we had a 0-period option at
       | 7:15 which is when we were able to take other arts classes like
       | concert band.
       | 
       | I ultimately was in 3 music related classes in high school:
       | concert band at 0-period, jazz band at 4th period, and a small
       | combo band after school 3-days per week.
       | 
       | I loved having a longer day when it meant I could do more of what
       | I wanted to do and also get some flexibility around the school's
       | otherwise rigid schedule but looking back I really appreciate
       | that the longer day was at least partially from starting earlier.
       | 
       | Starting these longer days early meant I still had a lot of free
       | time after school as well to spend with friends even if they were
       | involved in the "standard" day and gave me unstructured free time
       | before my parents came home and before I had to worry about doing
       | things like homework.
        
       | tronicdude wrote:
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31711020
        
       | sva_ wrote:
       | I fully understand that some people are seemingly genetically
       | predisposed to get up later, and in puberty this effect is
       | exacerbated (puberty seems to cause people's circadian rhythm to
       | make them stay up later). I'm probably one of them, looking at my
       | sleeping habits.
       | 
       | So while this will obviously have a positive effect on 'night
       | owls', may it have a negative effect on 'early birds'?
        
       | cultofmetatron wrote:
       | the chronic lack of sleep in highschool probably set back my
       | intellectual development a decade. These days I genenrally sleep
       | from midnight to 10am and that seems to be what I need to perform
       | in my job. Its crazy that my paid job is happy to accommodate me
       | while highschools continually disrespect their students with wake
       | up times that set them up for failure.
        
       | MikePlacid wrote:
       | My public-schooled daughter (now doing PhD in game theory in
       | UCSD) has a best friend (now doing PhD in meteorology in
       | CalTech). The best friend was home schooled - as they do it now
       | in California, i.e. she participated in a rather intense network
       | of online and offline study groups and community college courses.
       | They compared notes. The conclusion: the quality of the education
       | was the same. But in our - rather good - public school my
       | daughter had to participate in a lot of useless and boring tasks
       | and activities - a tremendous waste of time in her opinion.
       | 
       | So I guess the time that kids spend in public schools can be cut
       | tremendously, instead of its start being shifted from early
       | morning to a bit later morning. But I doubt that useless time
       | elimination can be achieved via legislation.
        
         | vlunkr wrote:
         | I'd be interested in seeing some kind of study on this. Before
         | high school, yeah, there's lots of time wasted on watching
         | videos and coloring pages, but I don't remember high school
         | being so bad. Unless the teacher was really lazy, we usually
         | covered lots of material.
        
       | blendergeek wrote:
       | When we follow this up with year-round "Day Light Savings Time"
       | will we move school a second hour forward?
        
       | cbhrocks wrote:
       | Nothing will change. Kids will just take advantage of the late
       | start by staying up even later.
        
         | rr888 wrote:
         | I dont understand this either. Yes teenagers are tired in the
         | morning and hard to get out of bed. My daughter and her friends
         | go to bed at midnight, 1am, often later.
        
           | khazhoux wrote:
           | It doesn't really work like that for those of us who aren't
           | "morning people." I will feel exhausted if I have to get up
           | at 7:30, but will feel _amazingly awake_ with the same number
           | of hours if I can sleep in till 9am. It 's not just the
           | number of hours, but how they align to the daily clock.
        
             | dang wrote:
             | > _Let me guess, you've always been a morning person?_
             | 
             | Please don't cross into personal attack.
             | 
             | https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
        
               | khazhoux wrote:
               | rephrased
        
               | dang wrote:
               | Yes, that's much better. Thanks!
        
         | tomtheelder wrote:
         | That's not what the research says. They aren't just
         | implementing this policy for no reason. It's a complicated
         | topic, but there's really good reason to believe that this will
         | be beneficial.
         | 
         | A few sources, there are _tons_ more:
         | 
         | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15402002.2014.96...
         | 
         | https://link.springer.com/article/10.1111/sbr.12003
         | 
         | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/07420528.2012.65...
         | 
         | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1540200070126380...
        
       | synergy20 wrote:
       | I never understand the schedule for schools:
       | 
       | 1. elementary school starts at 7:30AM, middle school at 8:20,
       | high school at 9:10 here. So, the youngest kid gets up at 6:50AM,
       | older ones at 7:50AM, oldest at 8:40(assuming you're not too far
       | from school that is). why the youngest ended up getting up the
       | earliest puzzles me.
       | 
       | 2. School is off in hot summer and cold winter, I would prefer
       | they study on campus then, so they can enjoy longer break in
       | spring and fall, where outdoor weather is much better to get
       | around.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | fossuser wrote:
         | 1. It's way better for younger kids to start earlier than older
         | kids, gives time for parents to get them out the door before
         | work (older kids can manage themselves). There's also some
         | evidence that older kids have more trouble getting up super
         | early.
         | 
         | 2. Highly regionally variable (California summer is the best
         | season by far, east coast summer is much worse than fall) -
         | summer also has the longest daytime light which is nice.
        
           | thehappypm wrote:
           | East coast summer is much worse than fall? What do you mean?
        
             | fossuser wrote:
             | Generalizing a bit, but the east coast in the summer is
             | often very hot, humid, and buggy. The east coast fall is
             | often less humid and more temperate (more pleasant to be
             | outside).
             | 
             | The west coast summer can be hot, but is rarely humid.
             | 
             | Middle of the country varies too much to really generalize
             | imo.
        
             | ghaff wrote:
             | Depends on a lot of things of course--including where on
             | the East Coast and the activity. (I wouldn't make such a
             | categorical statement about Maine for example.) But not so
             | hot and humid. Not so buggy. (Also fewer people.) In
             | general, I'd say that September/October are the ideal
             | months for much of New England (and a lot of the West Coast
             | as well.)
        
         | bluGill wrote:
         | Schools reused school buses, once they deliver the elementary
         | school kids it is back out (different route) for the next
         | grade. I wouldn't be surprised if there were other schools in
         | your district with other start times.
         | 
         | If the school system would team up with public transit, they
         | are already a quarter of the say to all day bus service for
         | everyone.
        
           | itronitron wrote:
           | In many European cities all public school students use the
           | existing public transit (buses, trams, subway). Very young
           | children are typically dropped off and picked up by a parent,
           | but beyond second grade they are usually traveling with their
           | peers.
        
             | EUROCARE wrote:
             | "all" is hyper-optimistic. I live in such city, and it's
             | half at best, the rest needs a car to get around anyways;
             | and most schools require parents to pick up children at
             | least until third grade.
        
         | chefandy wrote:
         | For us in high school we started the earliest. I think the idea
         | was that older siblings might need to care for younger ones
         | when they got out of school. Being a night owl, I'm 100%
         | positive it was a driving factor in my disengagement and
         | eventual expulsion (for truancy) from public school.
        
         | least wrote:
         | > why the youngest ended up getting up the earliest puzzles me.
         | 
         | I think there's been quite a few studies indicating that
         | teenagers benefit the most from later start times due to the
         | shift in their internal clock. Little kids can deal with
         | earlier start times.
         | 
         | Staggered start is frequently due to logistics; they don't want
         | to pay for a larger fleet of school buses and drivers to
         | facilitate the schools starting at the same time.
        
           | chucknthem wrote:
           | Helps working parents with logistics too. High school kids
           | can dress themselves and get themselves to school.
        
         | lemoncookiechip wrote:
         | "why the youngest ended up getting up the earliest puzzles me."
         | 
         | It's so parents who have to go to work, can drop their kids
         | off. The youngest are the ones who shouldn't (in most cities
         | unfortunately) be going by public transports by themselves.
         | While teens can just take the bus or subway.
        
         | InefficientRed wrote:
         | _> why the youngest ended up getting up the earliest puzzles
         | me._
         | 
         | I've always heard teenagers need more sleep than younger kids.
         | I've never actually verified this claim.
         | 
         | In my area it's the opposite, and the reason is simple: high
         | schoolers don't need childcare.
         | 
         |  _> School is off in hot summer and cold winter, I would prefer
         | they study on campus then, so they can enjoy longer break in
         | spring and fall, where outdoor weather is much better to get
         | around._
         | 
         | That's a pure anachronism, but switching costs are genuinely
         | high so not totally irrational.
        
           | bilsbie wrote:
           | It may not be that teenagers need more sleep rather that it's
           | harder for them to get enough sleep because they don't have
           | someone else controlling their sleep schedule like children
           | do.
        
             | ajmurmann wrote:
             | It's neither. There have been studies that showed that they
             | don't need more sleep, but are naturally on a later
             | circadian rhythm. Young kids are on a early cycle. Once
             | they become teens the cycle shifts to later hours and then
             | in the 20s starts moving forward again.
             | 
             | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4648699/
        
         | subsubzero wrote:
         | Its totally designed for working parents, little kids need the
         | most attention and therefore have the earliest start times. As
         | kids get older they are more self sufficient hence the later
         | school start times. But I think the reason for these times
         | primarily is for parents where both of them go to work early. I
         | am glad to see high schoolers start later as I remember having
         | a very hard time getting up early during my teenage years.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | KMag wrote:
         | I've heard that adolescents'/early adults' biological clocks
         | skew later. In my cohort, there are lots of parents annoyed
         | that early elementary school kids wake up before them on
         | weekends. Adolescents on the other hand are notorious for
         | sleeping in. Anecdotes don't make data, but I've heard second
         | hand that data backs up these stereotypes.
         | 
         | Supposedly Summer break is so that kids can help with harvests
         | on family farms.
        
           | SoftTalker wrote:
           | If I let my body clock do what it wants, I sleep from about
           | 3am - 11am. This has been my tendency since high school age.
           | I'm 56 now. My memory of the 22 years I had kids living in
           | the house is slightly fogged by me always being tired from
           | having to get up early to be sure they got to school and me
           | to work.
           | 
           | With the pandemic and WFH I shifted much closer to my natural
           | schedule.
           | 
           | We're officially back in the office now, but nobody is really
           | taking attendance so I get up at around 11, do some email
           | while I eat breakfast, then head in to the office until about
           | 6pm. I'm still getting as much or more done as I ever did,
           | because I was too tired to be effective when I was coming in
           | at 8:00 and basically just stared at the screen for two or
           | three hours until I really woke up.
        
         | gruez wrote:
         | A recent economist article explains it well:
         | 
         | >Since the 1950s Americans have been moving away from cities to
         | sprawling suburbs with limited public transport. Families
         | became car-dependent and buses were used to get pupils to
         | school. But to save money schools often have to share bus
         | fleets. High-schoolers are usually picked up first, then middle
         | school, to prevent elementary pupils from waiting in the
         | morning darkness.
         | 
         | https://www.economist.com/united-states/2022/06/23/californi...
        
           | thehappypm wrote:
           | It's less about "saving money" IMO than about wastefulness.
           | Every student going at the same time is just a waste of
           | busing resources. Staggering it a bit is more efficient,
           | which sure saves money but also just prevents waste
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | kshacker wrote:
           | Your parent comment said
           | 
           | > the youngest kid gets up at 6:50AM, older ones at 7:50AM,
           | oldest at 8:40
           | 
           | The comment you posted said
           | 
           | > High-schoolers are usually picked up first, then middle
           | school, to prevent elementary pupils from waiting in the
           | morning darkness.
           | 
           | They seem opposite, no?
        
             | lcvw wrote:
             | Depends on the school district. Growing up my district did
             | it younger->older, my partner's did it the reverse. I think
             | it's considered my progressive to do older kids later since
             | they tend to go to bed later.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | toomuchtodo wrote:
       | https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/features/schools-start-too-early.h...
       | 
       | https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aau6200
        
         | veilrap wrote:
         | The fact that "late bedtimes" is listed as a cause is telling -
         | shifting the start time later isn't likely to help if it just
         | allows/causes people to shift their bedtimes later in response.
         | 
         | Teens who go to bed at a reasonable hour are getting enough
         | sleep and performing well.
        
           | cma wrote:
           | Reasonable is arbitrary according to your own
           | preference/chronobiology most likely.
        
           | theptip wrote:
           | Diurnal cycles are a thing. (Some people naturally are night
           | owls.)
        
       | kingrazor wrote:
       | I had bad insomnia in high school and often went to sleep quite
       | late. This probably would have helped me a little.
        
       | Barrera wrote:
       | > "We know that teenagers are the most sleep-deprived age group,
       | and the cause is our own public policy," said Joy Wake, who
       | helped lead the efforts of the "Start School Later" group in
       | California.
       | 
       | I really doubt that. Sleep deprivation comes in large part from
       | online behavior (source: personal anecdotes). Whether or not
       | anyone wants to talk about that is another matter.
       | 
       | The new law is unlikely to change the sleep-deprived status of
       | students. Parents taking responsibility can.
        
         | tomtheelder wrote:
         | Online behavior is not the cause. It might be an aggravating
         | factor, but teenagers have been sleep deprived for a lot longer
         | than the internet has been around [1]. If we want to talk
         | personal anecdotes, I _definitely_ never slept enough as a
         | teenager despite not having internet access at that point. I 'd
         | be up reading books and stuff like that.
         | 
         | There are a lot of factors that go into adolescents not getting
         | enough sleep, and it's pretty clear that early school start
         | times are one of them: and one that can be controlled.
         | 
         | Also I think suggesting that parents can take responsibility
         | for the bed time of their teenagers is more than a little
         | unrealistic.
         | 
         | [1]
         | http://www.sleepforscience.org/stuff/contentmgr/files/94a9f6...
         | (from 1990 about sleep deprivation in adolescents)
        
         | msbarnett wrote:
         | > Sleep deprivation comes in large part from online behavior
         | 
         | Longitudinal studies observing that teenage circadian rhythms
         | shift towards sleeping in later long predate "online behavior".
        
           | iso1631 wrote:
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | lasfter wrote:
         | It is well documented since before the smartphone age that
         | adolescence comes with changes to circadian rhythm (e.g., [0])
         | which makes teens want to stay up late at night.
         | 
         | It is certainly stronger evidence than personal anecdotes about
         | "teens are always on their phones".
         | 
         | [0] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19546564/
        
       | bragr wrote:
       | My highschool started at 7:15AM. I have no memory now (~15 years
       | later) of any first period classes. I can remember things for 2nd
       | period and later, but first period? Not even vague memories.
        
       | texaslonghorn5 wrote:
       | Related earlier discussion on the California law?
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31711020
        
       | CivBase wrote:
       | Why did this need to be a law? If it was so obviously beneficial
       | like many commenters make it out to be, why didn't California's
       | public schools already schedule high schools to start later on
       | their own? Something doesn't add up.
        
       | ar_lan wrote:
       | This seems crazy late. IIRC I had a 0-period class starting at
       | 6:00am. Starting 2.5 hours later is surprising.
       | 
       | If I were back in high school, all this would have told me is
       | that I'm staying up until at least midnight, if not later. I was
       | usually good about sleeping around 9:30pm which gave me roughly 9
       | hours sleep.
       | 
       | Since I assume this means school will end later in the day, this
       | just means homework gets pushed much later too. My parents were
       | very strict about homework being done the same day, so there's no
       | chance I would have been able to keep my old schedule and do
       | homework in the mornings.
       | 
       | I'm curious what the effect is on the average and median kids.
       | This would have been incredibly annoying for me.
        
         | collegeburner wrote:
         | Fr lol all this will do is make kids less disciplined. They
         | need to be forced to go to bed and get up early precisely
         | because it is harder than getting up late and staying up late.
         | Inertia says its easier to stay up late than get up early so
         | since we need to put discipline into kids we should do the
         | opposite. Kids will otherwise just stay up late watching TV and
         | smoking marijuana.
        
           | closeparen wrote:
           | Kids exercising this discipline have lower cognitive
           | performance and more health problems.
        
           | crooked-v wrote:
           | There are plenty of people for whom 'discipline' will never
           | be able to overcome the effects of teenagers literally having
           | a different biological clock than either children or adults.
        
         | khazhoux wrote:
         | > I had a 0-period class starting at 6:00am
         | 
         | Your school admins were assholes. What unholy sadists would
         | start school that early??
         | 
         | What country was this?
        
           | veilrap wrote:
           | In the US, I had similar (not quite as early) optional
           | 0-period classes in high school that started around 6:45AM.
           | It was awesome, small class sizes (because it was optional),
           | interesting useful topics (Math and Philosophy).
           | 
           | I'm happy my school admins made this available to us. I don't
           | understand your rage.
        
             | khazhoux wrote:
             | The rage is because the commenter didn't say it was
             | optional (I guess I've never heard of "0" period). The
             | implication was that 6am was the standard at his school.
             | 
             | But if anyone _wants_ to get to school at the crack of
             | dawn, have fun! Just don 't impose that on those of us with
             | different internal clocks.
        
           | ar_lan wrote:
           | This was California.
        
             | khazhoux wrote:
             | Wow... so assuming 0-period was optional (per another
             | commenter above), your first mandatory class was 7am every
             | day? That's still insane for a school district to demand
             | all kids and their parents to be up at 6am. Terribly
             | inconsiderate.
        
         | robswc wrote:
         | "Studies show" that kids will not stay up later. I don't have
         | the time to really look into it but I guess I'll trust it for
         | now. I know 100% that I wouldn't have been disciplined enough
         | to go to sleep sooner though.
         | 
         | I would always pretty much get as little sleep as I could
         | function with because at that age, video games were more
         | important, lol. But I don't want to extrapolate my experience,
         | I'm sure most kids will adjust... but I can see a fair amount
         | having even worse sleeping schedules.
        
       | givemeethekeys wrote:
       | 8:30 or later. Good. I say start it at 10. Let the kids sleep in
       | and be happier for it.
        
         | logicalmonster wrote:
         | As a former child, I truly understand that a lack of sleep is a
         | problem in teens, but I think this solution is probably worse
         | for everybody.
         | 
         | 1) The flipside to starting much later is that kids will be
         | exiting schools later. Want to participate in some after school
         | activities or clubs that aren't physically in school? A HS kid
         | wants to hold down a little part time job so she can save to
         | buy that first car or afford that summer trip she wants? Any
         | activities out of school become much more difficult to manage
         | if the exiting time moves any later. And these extracurriculars
         | are also a big part of many peoples' lives.
         | 
         | 2) I think it's naive to think that kids will get much extra
         | sleep regardless of the school starting time. Their need for
         | socialization and leisure activities out of school doesn't
         | suddenly vanish if school starts later: they just get shifted.
         | If you tell kids that they can manage to wake up at 9 instead
         | of 7 and still make it to school on time, they'll just tend to
         | stay up about 2 hours later playing games, watching movies, or
         | chatting with friends. The end result might be about the same
         | amount of sleep.
         | 
         | 3) Logistically, it's hard enough for most parents to see their
         | kids for a few minutes and deal with getting their kids out of
         | the door in the morning (or driving them to school) when their
         | wakeup times roughly coincide and they can get a little
         | breakfast together or have a few minutes to chat. Trying to
         | arrange a much different school schedule for kids is going to
         | present a lot more difficulties to working parents,
         | particularly if the kid has some special needs, is a tad
         | rebellious about going to school, or you have to drive them for
         | some other reason.
         | 
         | Just thinking out loud here, but I'd say that getting rid of
         | the nightly busy work (homework) is a better way to fix teens
         | schedules. They already spend enough time at school learning.
         | Stop forcing them to waste an hour or two every night
         | regurgitating mostly busy work and then feeling like crap and
         | needing to stay up another few hours decompressing. Let them
         | get their fill of fun and socialization after a long day.
         | Without the burden of homework, most teens have enough extra
         | time in the day to get a little extra rest and still have
         | enough to unwind and feel like a human.
        
           | eikenberry wrote:
           | 1) They wouldn't need to get out any later. Most of the
           | school day is basically baby sitting and they could easily
           | fit the actual teaching in <4 hours.
           | 
           | 2) There have been bunches of studies that show teenagers
           | don't get proper sleep specifically when they get up early.
           | There is something about that age that requires sleeping
           | later to get good rest. No matter when they go to bed.
           | 
           | 3) Who says their waking coincides with the current times?
           | Doesn't for us. Something like 9:30 or 10:00 would.
        
             | barry-cotter wrote:
             | > 1) They wouldn't need to get out any later. Most of the
             | school day is basically baby sitting and they could easily
             | fit the actual teaching in <4 hours.
             | 
             | You have reinvented the German Gymnasium (grammar school).
             | Congratulations.
        
           | dqpb wrote:
           | > The flipside to starting much later is that kids will be
           | exiting schools later
           | 
           | Or they could just give that time back. Maybe things have
           | changed, but back when I was in school, almost every class
           | was a waste of time.
        
             | harmon wrote:
             | Even if you only take courses that aren't wastes of time,
             | there just isn't that much to do on a typical day. I
             | remember when I was in school I was taking something like 5
             | AP courses senior year but still had multiple study halls
             | per day, a useless homeroom which was basically a buffer
             | for people getting to school late, a gym class, and a 40
             | minute lunch. Almost half the day was time not spent in
             | lecture. A lot of the time is literally babysitting.
             | 
             | This is how people can go to college and spend
             | comparatively little time in class yet learn more than they
             | did in high school.
        
         | collegeburner wrote:
         | No young people need to get up early to build character. If you
         | let them stay up late they will get into trouble and become
         | lazy watching TV and playing video games or whatever or worse
         | they will be out late drinking and smoking marijuana. High
         | school especially should start at 7:00 AM.
        
         | smm11 wrote:
         | Yeah, because they won't just stay up later then.
        
           | givemeethekeys wrote:
           | Some of them may, but many more will wake up comfortably due
           | to more sunshine flooding through the window.
        
             | april_22 wrote:
             | Exactly. Sunshine is proven to supress melatonin production
             | (no matter whether night owl or early bird). Melatonin is
             | usually produced at night and encourages you to feel
             | sleepy. So later waking up times are certainly helpful,
             | even if the person goes to bed a bit later.
             | 
             | https://www.biologicalpsychiatryjournal.com/article/0006-32
             | 2... https://you.com/search?q=light+melatonin+production
        
           | jwilber wrote:
           | Their parents will still likely wake them up when they go off
           | to work.
        
             | smm11 wrote:
             | I am VERY close to this situation, I'm married to a
             | California teacher. Most of the kids hate this idea.
             | 
             | 1. They know they and everyone else will just stay up
             | later. 2. School will go on too late in the day, sports
             | participation is dropping appreciably. 3. Those who work
             | after school or school/sports are quitting sports to work,
             | and planning ways to leave when they did previously to go
             | to work.
             | 
             | This is incredibly short-sighted, and will not last a year.
        
               | troupe wrote:
               | It feels like something that might better be decided at
               | the local school district level.
        
               | alistairSH wrote:
               | The problem with that approach is the debate tends to be
               | led by football parents who want to make sure there's
               | ample time for the kids to beat each other senseless on
               | the field. Literally, that's the argument we got in
               | Fairfax County when similar proposals were floated.
        
               | giantg2 wrote:
               | This sounds like a vast over simplification and plain
               | scapegoating. All the school start time surveys I've seen
               | typically have an even split up to moderately favoring
               | normal start times. Half the school is not on the
               | football team.
        
               | smm11 wrote:
               | Good thing they'll graduate and have kind bosses who are
               | okay with them rolling in at 10.
        
               | alistairSH wrote:
               | Education is more important than playing football.
               | Working is more important than playing football (for
               | those who need the money).
               | 
               | Anecdotally, when I was in high school, with a 7:30 AM
               | start, around 25% of the class was asleep through 1st
               | period. And this was in honors/AP courses with the kids
               | who wanted to learn, get good grades, and generally be
               | successful.
        
               | SoftTalker wrote:
               | Football (and its school attendance and passing grade
               | requirements) might be the thing keeping a kid in school
               | and getting an education.
        
               | alistairSH wrote:
               | Maybe. But, we're not talking about eliminating sports.
               | Or after-school employment. Only shortening the window to
               | do both. And the Venn diagram of kids that "need" to play
               | sports and need to work pales in comparison to the total
               | student body, who all (in aggregate) benefit from more
               | morning sleep.
        
               | giantg2 wrote:
               | That doesn't match my experience at all. I started at
               | 7:15 (special elective) and school started at 8. The only
               | kids who would fall asleep were the kids that stayed up
               | late playing videogames, abusing caffeine (and/or other
               | drugs), and didn't care about grades.
               | 
               | So my anecdotes don't match your's.
        
         | httpz wrote:
         | That won't work for young kids if the parents have to go to
         | work by 9.
        
           | baby wrote:
           | let's make people start work later!
        
             | dwighttk wrote:
             | Mandatory blue laws before 9am!
        
           | MBlume wrote:
           | If a high schooler needs to be driven to school by their
           | parent, there is a serious street safety/transit problem
           | which should be solved.
        
             | ravitation wrote:
             | Most of America is a serious street safety/transit problem
             | which should be solved.
             | 
             | A plurality ~35% of high school students are driven to
             | school, though not necessarily by a parent.
             | 
             | https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0739456X177251
             | 4...
             | 
             | https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-07/how-
             | dista...
             | 
             | EDIT: This is nationwide, there's reason to believe this
             | percentage is probably higher in California.
        
               | robswc wrote:
               | I was one of those kids. Only because taking the bus was
               | a pain in the ass and my parents loved me enough to put
               | up with it, at least until I could drive.
               | 
               | Bus was awful. Kids had no respect for the driver or
               | other kids. Plus it easily tripled the commute time.
        
               | ravitation wrote:
               | > Bus was awful.
               | 
               | Exactly. Similar to the problem many adults have trying
               | to get to work by bus, it often doubles or triples a
               | commute time.
        
               | SoftTalker wrote:
               | Yes. The bus my kids would have to take to High School
               | served both middle and high school. They would have been
               | on the bus for about 40 minutes and arrived at school 30
               | minutes before the first period started. School was about
               | 15 minutes away by car.
               | 
               | If I drove them (or when they were old enough to drive on
               | their own), they could sleep nearly an hour later than if
               | they had to take the bus. Since it wasn't much of a
               | detour on my way to work, that's what I did.
        
             | giantg2 wrote:
             | I think the bigger issue is unsupervised minors. Not all
             | high schoolers are mature enough to be left alone and go to
             | school. I suppose this could be solved by pre-care, but
             | that make this bill completely moot.
        
               | wintermutestwin wrote:
               | >Not all high schoolers are mature enough to be left
               | alone and go to school.
               | 
               | That's insane. I walked to school at 6. At 8, I walked to
               | the bus stop and rode a public transit bus to school. The
               | helicoptering has gone way to far and it is creating
               | generations of crippled kids. I wonder if this is solely
               | caused by the media pushing fear or if there are other
               | factors.
        
               | giantg2 wrote:
               | I agree. We need to change the laws, case law, and
               | societal expectations to stop threatening parents over
               | lack of supervision.
        
               | krasin wrote:
               | >Not all high schoolers are mature enough to be left
               | alone and go to school
               | 
               | As an anecdote, 100% of my class was coming to the school
               | and back without being supervised since age 8. This was
               | in 90s and not in the US, but the gap of "mature enough
               | to go to school" between my experience and the statement
               | feels a bit high, somehow.
        
               | giantg2 wrote:
               | Yes, maturity in the US seems delayed compared to many
               | places. I feel it's because the laws and nosy neighbors
               | have basically made it impossible to give kids
               | responsibility. Nobody wants to hire kids because of the
               | labor laws. Kids don't want to work because they get
               | everything handed to them or the cost of stuff like
               | transportation is too high. Let your young kid play
               | alone? You might have the cops called on you.
        
               | fleddr wrote:
               | Late 80s, Netherlands. As of the age of 6, I was free
               | roaming on my tiny bicycle. I could go wherever I please,
               | zero supervision, just be back in time for diner. And of
               | course without any technology (smartphone).
               | 
               | Modern parents would have a heart attack.
        
               | alistairSH wrote:
               | Yep. And it's 100% normal for early prior year school
               | aged kids in Japan to cross town on the subway on their
               | own. The American obsession with helicoptering their kids
               | all the way through their first job is super weird and
               | unhealthy.
        
               | rootusrootus wrote:
               | Could we just stop? Please? I know it's cool to talk shit
               | about Americans _constantly_ but it gets old. I want to
               | expect better from HN.
               | 
               | > The American obsession with helicoptering their kids
               | all the way through their first job is super weird and
               | unhealthy.
               | 
               | My kids, along with many others, were getting themselves
               | to & from school without my supervision starting in third
               | grade. Earlier, even, for my son since his sister is two
               | years older and was with him.
               | 
               | This is _normal_. What is the fascination that so many
               | Europeans (and others) have with making wild unsupported
               | assertions about what Americans do and then build an
               | entire critique from that?
        
               | em-bee wrote:
               | the fascination comes from all these stories here:
               | 
               | https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&
               | que...
        
               | alistairSH wrote:
               | I'm American and I've seen enough helicopter stupidity
               | over the years to be confident saying it's a problem. Is
               | it the norm? Maybe not. But it's common enough to be a
               | thing.
        
               | bcrosby95 wrote:
               | Most of the helicopter stupidity i see comes from people
               | without kids. As in, you're a terrible parent because you
               | weren't constantly watching your kids and they did
               | something kids do that I don't like.
        
               | alistairSH wrote:
               | We're talking about a pretty small window of time. 2
               | hours at most. And a kid who's going to willfully skip
               | school is going to do so whether or not school starts at
               | 8:30 instead of 7:30.
               | 
               | In most cases, this should work out better for parents.
               | With elementary school starting latest (as was the norm
               | in many places a decade ago), the little kids end up in
               | pre-care AND after-care. Now, they'll start earlier,
               | possibly avoiding pre-care.
        
               | freedomben wrote:
               | Two hours is plenty of time for mischief, and skipping
               | school isn't the concern. Source: Made a lot of mischief
               | in my youth.
        
               | alistairSH wrote:
               | Sure, but you probably would have gotten up to mischief
               | regardless of the first bell. And in the case of the
               | morning, would you choose mischief or an extra hour of
               | sleep? Just a guess, but I bet most kids take the sleep.
        
               | MonkeyMalarky wrote:
               | If you can't trust a highschool aged kid to go to school
               | on their own, early start times aren't going to change
               | anything. Heck, you can drive them to the building and
               | watch them walk inside and they'll just walk right out
               | the back. Delinquent kids dgaf. Now for the not totally
               | delinquent but still up for sketchy borderline behaviour
               | kids, finishing early and having couple hours between the
               | end of class and when their parents come home from work
               | is when all the dumb stuff happens. Sleeping in and
               | getting home around the same time as their parents leaves
               | a lot fewer opportunities for hijinks.
        
               | giantg2 wrote:
               | If the kids really have a hard time waking up (the point
               | t of this law), then it's possible they over sleep. Many
               | parents might not be comfortable with their kid cooking
               | breakfast unsupervised too.
               | 
               | If they're in after school activities and/or have a job,
               | then it seem unlikely that they would get into trouble
               | anyways. Pushing the time back will make these after
               | school activities unfeasible for many, and limit
               | opportunities.
        
               | throwaway742 wrote:
               | These are high school students they are going to be
               | living on their own soon. I think being able to feed
               | themselves is a skill they should probably develop.
        
               | giantg2 wrote:
               | One could argue that being at school at 8am is a valuable
               | skill they should since most jobs require that (or
               | earlier) start time.
        
               | bcrosby95 wrote:
               | Use an alarm. Eat cereal. Use the microwave. These are
               | all non problems that any half functioning adult or high
               | school kid can think of solutions to.
        
               | giantg2 wrote:
               | If the kids are really so sleep deprived that we need a
               | law about it, then it's likely some will sleep past their
               | alarms.
               | 
               | Dictating diet by limiting options doesn't sound like a
               | great plan to me.
               | 
               | You know what else is a non-problem? The current start
               | times.
        
               | MonkeyMalarky wrote:
               | I see the argument you are making and just want to
               | suggest that this law is trying to help out the kids who
               | are both capable of getting to school on their own
               | regardless of start time, who would also benefit from the
               | extra sleep. I suspect that this is the majority of the
               | population of teenagers. Public schools are not really a
               | free market where kids get to pick and choose based on
               | features like start times. Most are selected because it
               | is the only practical option for the family's means. In
               | the absence of market pressure, using legislation to
               | improve people's lives isn't wrong.
        
               | giantg2 wrote:
               | If this is such a contentious issue, then why not allow
               | the parents in each district to decide? That's really
               | what I'm getting at - the state is making this decision
               | for everyone by usurping the parents representation at
               | the district level.
        
               | MonkeyMalarky wrote:
               | If it is such a contentious issue, then why go through
               | all the extra time and effort to decide it for each and
               | every district? Parents still have a voice and vote at
               | the state level do they not?
        
               | giantg2 wrote:
               | Because what works for one district might not work for
               | another based on the demographics and culture of the
               | location.
               | 
               | Their voice at the state level is highly diluted by non-
               | interested parties. Voting for school board members tends
               | to be more focused and doesn't have as many people voting
               | based on non-school issues like you would for a general
               | representative.
        
               | MonkeyMalarky wrote:
               | I'm failing to reconcile the image of a hypothetical
               | teenager who is both so irresponsible and incompetent
               | that you can't trust them to get up or make breakfast on
               | their own without burning down the house while
               | simultaneously being capable of having an after school
               | job.
               | 
               | If you can't leave them unsupervised in the mornings,
               | surely they can't be left alone after school either. Net
               | net, there's going to be some time they're unsupervised.
               | May as well let them get some rest. Maybe the lack of
               | sleep deprivation will even encourage better decision-
               | making.
        
               | giantg2 wrote:
               | They don't need to be the same kid.
               | 
               | After school has after school activities. It also
               | typically means they don't need to cook if the parents
               | are home for dinner.
        
               | em-bee wrote:
               | my ten year can cook breakfast, on a gas stove too. and
               | besides there are plenty of breakfast options that don't
               | require cooking. worst case, they reheat in the microwave
               | what parents cooked earlier.
               | 
               | if a 15 year old can't be unsupervised at home, then
               | their parents have different problems besides letting
               | them cook for themselves.
        
             | mrits wrote:
             | I'm not sure we need public transportation to pick up 3
             | kids on top of a mountain.
        
             | yupper32 wrote:
             | Ok, well it's not going to be solved. So what's your view
             | on it now?
        
               | treesprite82 wrote:
               | A school day ending at 2pm already has this issue - this
               | just splits it between the start and end of the day. For
               | some parents that may be better, for some it may be
               | worse. There's also the possibility for before-school
               | activities or in-school breakfast.
        
           | giantg2 wrote:
           | This is for high school. But not all high schoolers are
           | responsible enough, so still a point. Also, the majority of
           | people have to be at work at 8am or earlier.
        
             | iso1631 wrote:
             | Who has to be _at_ work nowadays, other than people who
             | tend to work in jobs which mean shift patterns.
             | 
             | Sometimes I have to start work at 4am, does that mean that
             | schools should start at 3am to make it convenient for me?
             | What about when I finish at 11pm? What if I'm working
             | overnight?
        
               | giantg2 wrote:
               | "Who has to be at work nowadays,"
               | 
               | That sounds incredibly privileged.
               | 
               | https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/overflow-data-
               | finds-th...
        
         | giantg2 wrote:
         | Ten sounds like a nightmare for working parents. Eight seems
         | like a completely reasonable start time to me, yet this law
         | prevents that. Schools should be able to decide for themselves
         | based off of the parents and what works for those in the
         | district.
        
           | throwaway2016a wrote:
           | While as a parent myself I agree but this is high school.
           | Generally speaking someone who's 13 or older should be able
           | to make their way onto a bus without an adult. When I was
           | that age (granted this was the 90s) I had a key to the house
           | and was trusted to let myself in when I got back.
           | 
           | What's worse is the end of day. My kid is younger and I need
           | to be at the bus stop at 3:50 PM every day to meet her.
        
             | jghn wrote:
             | I walked by myself a quarter mile to kindergarten. I walked
             | by myself to a bus stop through the rest of my school days
             | until myself & friends started driving. Most of those years
             | I came home to an empty house at the end of the school day.
             | 
             | Not sure why this is a big deal. Kids can manage on their
             | own.
        
             | Johnny555 wrote:
             | I'm a bit older than you, and when I was 10 my parents had
             | no qualms with leaving me home alone (along with my younger
             | sister).
             | 
             | But this was a time when neighbors knew each other well and
             | you could go next door for help if you needed it. (and also
             | if you did something dumb, you could count on your mom
             | finding out from a neighbor)
        
           | feet wrote:
           | That's because the law is based around what's been observed
           | behaviorally/biologically. Not what's good for working
           | parents
           | 
           | Schools shouldn't be forcing developing humans into a
           | schedule that impairs their ability to learn and function, no
           | matter what they want to decide
        
             | koolba wrote:
             | If they do enough physical and mental labor during the day
             | and turn off their smart phones at night, they'll have no
             | issue going to sleep early enough.
             | 
             | On the other hand if you do nothing mentally stimulating or
             | physically tiring all day long, then of course you won't be
             | able to sleep till late.
        
               | KMag wrote:
               | That's no joke. I did tree removal for a few weeks one
               | Summer while waiting for my Summer camp counselling job
               | to start. I slept a solid 10 hours every night and felt
               | awesome every morning. "Guiltless sleep of the righteous"
               | and all of that. If they could bottle that sleep in a
               | pill without having to drag downed trees all day, it
               | would be crazy addictive.
        
               | heretogetout wrote:
               | Have you read the relevant research on the subject?
        
               | crooked-v wrote:
               | Teenagers literally have different sleep rhythms than
               | either children or adults, so in the average case staying
               | up late is a symptom, not a cause.
        
               | feet wrote:
               | ITT: people who haven't read the research decide they
               | know what is best based on personal anecdote
        
               | Salgat wrote:
               | I'd rather just stick to what studies find as best
               | instead of anecdotes about needing to physically exhaust
               | children to force them into the desired sleep schedule.
               | Also there's research showing humans have varying natural
               | times they ideally sleep at, and they suffer outside
               | those hours.
        
             | giantg2 wrote:
             | What is behaviorally/biologically beneficial varies by
             | individual. Societal life should be a factor as that does
             | factor into the holistic well-being of the student. Not
             | just some myopic rule about start times that negatively
             | impacts everything else (after school activities, jobs,
             | parent schedules, etc).
             | 
             | "Schools shouldn't be forcing developing humans into a
             | schedule that impairs their ability to learn and function,
             | no matter what they want to decide"
             | 
             | If you actually believe that, then you have to be against
             | this law. Any schedule will negatively affect someone. A
             | later schedule would have been terrible for me.
        
               | rootusrootus wrote:
               | > A later schedule would have been terrible for me.
               | 
               | Me too. I have always been an early riser, early sleeper.
               | Forcing me to go to school later in the day would have
               | been awful.
        
               | least wrote:
               | In what way would it have been awful? Even if you shifted
               | schools several hours ahead of your wake time, it just
               | means that you have more time in the morning and less
               | time in the afternoon, but still well within your normal
               | hours.
               | 
               | I think the goal of these sorts of policies is to
               | increase the breadth of students which can benefit from
               | you know, actually being well rested inside school hours.
               | A person that sleeps later and wakes up later (which
               | studies that justify these sorts of policies indicates
               | teenagers largely are) would benefit from a later start
               | time.
        
               | least wrote:
               | > What is behaviorally/biologically beneficial varies by
               | individual.
               | 
               | As someone that has sleep issues that deviate vastly from
               | the norm, I empathize with this point, but it doesn't
               | really mean much when it comes to designing policy, which
               | is supposed to serve its demographic broadly.
               | 
               | > Societal life should be a factor as that does factor
               | into the holistic well-being of the student. Not just
               | some myopic rule about start times that negatively
               | impacts everything else (after school activities, jobs,
               | parent schedules, etc).
               | 
               | The rule being set by the state or by the local school
               | district is hardly of consequence. You're okay with
               | painting broad strokes about parents' lives but then make
               | an argument about individual students.
               | 
               | > If you actually believe that, then you have to be
               | against this law. Any schedule will negatively affect
               | someone. A later schedule would have been terrible for
               | me.
               | 
               | Unless you're suggesting that the start times be adjusted
               | to cater to every single individual's needs, this is just
               | pointing out that the start time the school you attended
               | coincided with what worked for you personally.
        
               | giantg2 wrote:
               | "which is supposed to serve its demographic broadly."
               | 
               | Which the current times do.
               | 
               | "The rule being set by the state or by the local school
               | district is hardly of consequence."
               | 
               | This is totally untrue. At the district level, parents
               | have more say in creating the rules that work for them
               | (their local demographic!).
               | 
               | "You're okay with painting broad strokes about parents'
               | lives but then make an argument about individual
               | students."
               | 
               | Either one is broad. I'm pointing out that the very
               | argument you make can be used against the position you're
               | defending.
        
               | least wrote:
               | > Which the current times do.
               | 
               | According to... what? The whole reason that California
               | passed a law like this and why it's been suggested to
               | push up the start time for high school is largely because
               | the time that many school districts started their high
               | schoolers at was of _negative consequence_ to the
               | children.
               | 
               | > This is totally untrue. At the district level, parents
               | have more say in creating the rules that work for them
               | (their local demographic!).
               | 
               | Are you saying that you'd have no objections if the local
               | school district chose to start high school at a later
               | time? I might agree with you that the state is
               | overstepping its bounds by mandating an earliest start
               | time, but that doesn't seem to be what you're complaining
               | about. It seems more that you disagree that a later start
               | time is beneficial to students (because you personally
               | benefitted from the early start time of your high school)
               | and that it's inconvenient to parents because they have
               | to figure out the logistics of getting their kid to
               | school at a later time.
        
           | elil17 wrote:
           | Schools ending at 3 pm is also a nightmare for working
           | parents. But most high schoolers can get on the bus
           | themselves. After care, sports exists in many places for
           | those that can't/whose parents are against it. Now you can
           | just move some of those after school activities before school
           | for kids whose parents won't let them take the bus
           | themselves.
        
           | gnopgnip wrote:
           | But if all schools have to start later, employers will need
           | to work around that
        
             | wccrawford wrote:
             | No they won't. They'll still keep their same schedule, and
             | parents will have to figure out how to deal with it. Some
             | don't have family members that can help, and some
             | enterprising daycares will open up early for school kids to
             | deal with them before school.
             | 
             | Of course, the buses won't run that early, so only well-to-
             | do parents will be able to use those daycares in the first
             | place, leaving poor parents even worse off than they were
             | before.
        
             | giantg2 wrote:
             | Some might. I bet many won't. Good luck doing business with
             | the east coast if your office doesn't open until 11 am
             | pacific.
        
               | ironmagma wrote:
               | If you're doing business with the east coast, you
               | probably don't need to be in the office for that.
        
           | guelo wrote:
           | Don't working parents already have a nightmare with school
           | day ending around 2pm? This would just shift some of that
           | nightmare from afternoon to morning.
        
             | bluGill wrote:
             | They already have daycare picking the kids up. Now they
             | have to drop the kids off, and the kids can't really do
             | anything at daycare because they are quickly getting into
             | the bus to get to school, then when off school there is
             | less time to do anything before their parents pick them up
             | again.
        
               | imadethis wrote:
               | No high school student is going to daycare though, and
               | this law is specifically for high school students.
        
               | giantg2 wrote:
               | This is a bit anti-DEI. Special needs and kids with
               | behavioral issues do need that. Now they would need it
               | twice a day.
        
               | lcvw wrote:
               | High school has sports and activities though. I know many
               | families that use the sports team as if it were a day
               | care. If they do sports the kids usually get out
               | somewhere between 4:30 and 5:30. Where I live now, a lot
               | of the high schoolers are in school 7:30-5:30. It's
               | pretty ridiculous, since they also have homework. Many
               | high schools seem to be in the process of transforming
               | themselves into juvenile prisons designed to keep
               | teenagers away from the rest of society.
        
               | elil17 wrote:
               | Sports can happen before school
        
               | tshaddox wrote:
               | It must be a fairly low portion of high school students
               | who do after-school activities every single day, right?
        
               | barry-cotter wrote:
               | It's not an analogy. One of school's main purposes along
               | with sorting and ranking and reducing their tendency to
               | creativity and independent thought is day care.
        
             | freedomben wrote:
             | not really, it doubles it. Instead of having to arrange for
             | care/transportation/etc once for a few hours in the
             | afternoon, now you have to arrange for it twice for an hour
             | or two in the morning and an hour or two in the afternoon.
        
             | giantg2 wrote:
             | Not with after school activities like sports or clubs.
             | 
             | The bigger issue is requiring some sort of pre-care. Which
             | if necessary, makes this whole law moot because you're
             | waking the kid up for that.
        
           | iso1631 wrote:
           | Why? We're talking high schools - which I believe in the US
           | is about age 15 onwards, nothing to do with parents
        
             | stjohnswarts wrote:
             | 13,14, or 15. Source: I was 13 when I started high school
             | in 9th grade. Not all high schools start at 10th grade
        
               | [deleted]
        
             | chrononaut wrote:
             | It can be age 13 onward, although your point is still quite
             | valid, even at 13.
        
             | giantg2 wrote:
             | How do you think this has nothing to do with parents? You
             | do realize that 14-17 is still a minor?
        
               | ghaff wrote:
               | I wouldn't say "nothing to do with parents." But kids in
               | that age range can do quite a few things on their own. I
               | was in college in a different city at 16.
        
               | giantg2 wrote:
               | I'm not just talking about the getting to school part.
               | I'm also talking about setting the time part via parents
               | at the board meetings.
        
               | SoftTalker wrote:
               | It's not so much them getting to school on their own, yes
               | they can easily do that. It's making sure they are
               | actually awake. When my kids were teens, if someone was
               | not there to make sure they got up, they would sleep
               | until 10 or 11. Alarms, etc. had basically no effect they
               | could sleep through a tornado.
        
               | elil17 wrote:
               | The later you start school, the less of an issue this
               | will be.
        
               | ghaff wrote:
               | Fair enough. I was driven to high school by my mother.
               | 9am classes in university were tough and they were just a
               | short walk away :-)
        
               | elil17 wrote:
               | The idea that just because you're a minor you can't take
               | a bus, a bus specifically for children, in fact, is
               | ludicrous. Can't coddle kids forever. Except for special
               | needs people should be able to do basic things by
               | themselves at age 13, earlier in most cases.
        
               | stjohnswarts wrote:
               | There's a reason that age is called "young adult" . Only
               | helicopter parents can't handle the idea of a 13 year old
               | not being okay on their own for an hour or so after they
               | head out to work. I was riding my bike to school at 9 and
               | I survived, kids haven't changed that much in 15 years.
               | Obviously there are exceptions like for special needs
               | children, but those are pretty rare.
        
               | giantg2 wrote:
               | The laws and case law say otherwise.
        
               | iso1631 wrote:
               | If your 14 year old is not capable of sorting themselves
               | out for a couple of hours you've failed as a parent, and
               | your idea that a 17 year old needs a parent to wipe their
               | bottom is hilarious?!
               | 
               | Do you think something magically happens on their 18th
               | birthday?
        
               | dang wrote:
               | Please don't post in the flamewar style to HN. It's not
               | what this site is for, and it destroys what it is for.
               | 
               | https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
        
               | alar44 wrote:
               | And are fully capable of walking, riding bikes, or
               | waiting for the bus on their own. The permanent
               | infantilization of America is fucking insane and
               | dangerous.
        
               | giantg2 wrote:
               | Parents get forced into it due to the laws and societal
               | expectations (juries/civil cases). Guess who can go to
               | jail if their teenage kid doesn't go to school? Fix that
               | law, and then we can start talking about these.
        
               | elil17 wrote:
               | Yes we should fix those laws. But now most schools let
               | you stay late, no reason they won't be able to let you
               | come earlier for those who need it.
        
           | cortesoft wrote:
           | You can have before school programs for people who have to
           | get their kids to school early. It can replace after school
           | care
        
           | eikenberry wrote:
           | I work remotely and start my day at 10am. I've done this for
           | years and the only reason I ever got up early was to drive
           | kids to school. As a working parent starting at 8 was a
           | nightmare for my wife (who works similar hours) and I. We
           | alternated so neither of us would be to sleep deprived as
           | it's really hard to get back to sleep after driving your kids
           | to school.
           | 
           | It's to late to help us.. my youngest just turned 16 and will
           | be able to drive themself to school next year and we'll
           | finally get decent sleep during the school year. But this
           | would be a big boon to lots of people.
        
       | greatpostman wrote:
       | They should also outlaw busy work. Just wasted human life comes
       | from that
        
         | khazhoux wrote:
         | You'll need to be more specific.
         | 
         | School curricula have changed significantly the last couple of
         | decades, esp. in california.
        
       | giantg2 wrote:
       | If the afternoon nap is the issue, then how about siestas?
        
         | khazhoux wrote:
         | In my country, we'd get an hour (or more?) to walk home for
         | lunch every day.
        
       | sharadov wrote:
       | Elementary school kids have an easier schedule and tend to go to
       | bed early. Teens in high school tend have a more intense schedule
       | ( academics, sports, other activities). The teen body is growing
       | more quickly and they need about 8 to 10 hrs of sleep. I know
       | high schools that start at 7:50 am, that is criminal. Let the
       | teens sleep in..
        
         | JJMcJ wrote:
         | Used to be bedtime for even high schoolers would be 10 PM or
         | earlier. No computers, one TV for the whole house.
         | 
         | So getting up at 7 to make an 8:30 start wasn't so bad. My high
         | school was a fifteen minute walk, or a similar bus ride in the
         | winter. So it wasn't so bad.
        
           | sharadov wrote:
           | Were you a 90s kid? I remember going to bed between 9 and
           | 9:30 PM in high school, and being up at 6 am - since I went
           | for a morning run, school did not start till 8:30 am..
        
         | _trackno5 wrote:
         | This argument makes no sense to me. How is it criminal to start
         | at 7:50am? Kids can sleep early and get their 8-10 hours of
         | sleep just the same.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | dredmorbius wrote:
       | This issue was discussed about 20 days age with 394 comments:
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31711020
       | 
       | Based on an _Atlantic_ piece:
       | 
       | https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2022/06/american-...
        
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       (page generated 2022-07-01 23:01 UTC)