That wasn’t “balanced”, but you do you. The “late” start has been problematic but overall not terrible. What it accomplished in large urban districts is staggered the arrival times, and therefore the commute volume, which helps large swaths of the population. Just FYI, the state and a broad alliance of child psychologists and MDs threw this issue to individual districts and they borked it, hard. No agreement. So when that happens the heavy hand of the state come into the picture. Eh were
Real experience? Our staff said “sports will be super fucked by this and disaster will be upon us!” What actually happened? Students in outlying neighborhoods had wiggle room to get up and going in the am. When school started at 7:25am I had kids up at 4:45 Roget ready and get to the (shrinking) bus stops. They were FRIED by noon, so afternoon classes were hosed.
What’s disquieting, to say the least, is the notion that parent work schedules and sports should dictate start times. If you want to “go back” you would know this was not a consideration at all. School started when school started. Building the schedule around “work hours” (loosely defined) was specific to those communities and schools. When local entities FAILED to respond over a decade to the research and best practices for THEM due to petty time conflicts, the heavy hand of the state came down.
IMO this debate is driven by self interest and hyper individualism. Those taking a narrow focus are willfully ignoring that and worse, inflicting harm on outlining communities seeking better educational opportunities in the center of town, so to speak.
Calling dependent children “fat lazy pieces of shit” says more about you than the children. It’s hyperbole I know, but it’s harmful to those of us that are dedicated classroom teachers helping pull kids up by their bootstraps. It’s hard job. We don’t want or need aggressive parents denigrating the under resourced or struggling families. Empathy isn’t that hard, for most.
Life is hard. What I see in this post is a teacher who refuses to acknowledge that. I’ll give you an example.
Today, I got out of bed at 4:45AM in Agusta Georgia. I got to Agusta last night at about 6PM, after awaking at (goes back to schedule because can’t remember) 5AM in Rochester, NY. I’ve had 3 12 hour days in a row, with less than 12 hours to rest. Every overnight save for the last one has moved farther east, and started earlier. I’m finally headed home. No one has decided to revise my sleep schedule, my work schedule, or told me “you’ll do better if you get more sleep.” Why? Because I’m an adult. I know life is hard. I also had parents who said “it’s 9 o’clock, GO TO BED!” “and “NO ONE OWES YOU ANYTHING!”
I’ve been in this industry for nearly 20 years now. I’ve seen it change. I’ve seen it go from people who know that life is hard to people refusing to accept that. I’ve seen it go from everyone pulling their weight, knowing that their time is coming to people thinking it’s owed to them. I blame changes like this, and teachers like you for that. I see things getting “better” in the short term, and much worse in the long. I see people thinking and trying to make a meaningful impact only doing the opposite.
My house? “This isn’t a democracy. It’s a dictatorship. When you help pay the bills, go to bed without being told to, figure out how to make that dinner you just ate, and show me some responsibility, then the dictatorship will be over. Until then, my house, my rules. If you want to call CPS because of that, here, it’s ringing. I hope you enjoy foster care.”
If that makes me one of those aggressive parents you hate, good. What school do you work at so I know not to send my kids there? My job is to raise respectful kids who know how to find their place in society. You’re job is to teach them math, science, history, etc. Stay in your lane! I’m not upset if you don’t like that, but I will be if you think your job is to be their parent.
The fallacy that “kids will do better if we start school later” is preposterous. They’ll just go to bed later. There’s only so much time in the day, and most of it is already spoken for. You should know that by now, you’ve been adulting for long enough. It’s also ridiculous to equate drug and alcohol abuse to school start times. Many parents simply can’t drop kids off later than they already do. So they won’t. That will leave more kids the opportunity to be unsupervised. “But there will be staff on campus.” Great, provided that they actually go to campus.
Seems to me like they made this decision with a 10 foot view, not a 100ft one.
