Early Tuesday morning as we were laying out the day’s paper, a story on the AP wire caught my eye.
Kansas’s top health officer, Dr. Jason Eberhart-Phillips, said that high schoolers need more sleep to help prevent teenage sleep deprivation.
A survey showed that 15 percent of teens are only getting 8.5 hours of sleep and many teens are getting less than 6 hours. They should be getting 10 hours a night.
The state’s top health officer suggested starting school at 8:30 a.m. would help students’ motivation, attendance and overall performance.
At what point do we quit pandering to this generation of children? The sooner children learn how to fit into society and not expect society to cater to them, the better off they will be.
If students need more sleep, then perhaps the state’s top health official should be encouraging parents to hold their children accountable and have them go to bed earlier.
If schools move back start times, what message is that teaching students in preparation for the work world?
In the work world if a person has poor job performance or motivation, the consequence will likely be not having a job. It is unlikely that an employer will move back the business start time to allow more sleep time.
Starting school later is the wrong message for the state’s top health official to send to Kansans. Of course, that may be an easier solution than encouraging parents to be parents.
mslater (Matt Slater) says...
10 hours of sleep a night? Really? Good article, Chris, thanks for posting this. I think I'm going to email a certain "top health officer" and ask what distorted reality he lives in where he can get 10 hours of sleep a day!
Must be nice!
September 8, 2010 at 12:52 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
uranidiot (anonymous) says...
I'm sure glad all High school students are cut from the same cookie cutter. Ten hours a night my ass. There is no way with sports, homework and just taking the time to eat dinner with there family they could get ten hours in. When I was that age four to six was good enough and I never slept during class.
It's a learning experince deteriming how much sleep you need to get. Kids will sleep if they need to.
Yes we need to stop pandering to teenagers, changing rules to fit there life style. On the same token we also need to stop nurse maiding them until they are twenty years old. Let them make messes and learn how to clean them up by them selves.
September 8, 2010 at 1:42 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
biscuitboy (anonymous) says...
Every once in awhile I agree with one of your editorials Chris, and this is one of those times. Good job!
September 8, 2010 at 2:07 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
oh4theluvof (anonymous) says...
Teenagers need to be taught that they can't always do everything they want to do if they are going to take care of themselves. Hormone fluxes exhaust the body, alter blood sugar levels and compromise the immune system. You never hear anyone dispute that a pregnant woman needs more sleep, but no one ever stops to think that she does because of the sudden increase and fluctuations of hormones. Lack of sleep causes imbalances in balanced hormones, so if they aren't balanced yet, it wreaks havoc on the teen's body. In addition to the introduction of new hormones, they are also going through growth spurts comparable to those they went through as toddlers. Yes, they absolutely need the sleep and it is the job of parents to teach them that.
It is the job of parents because they are, in fact, still children. We need to keep that little detail in mind as we think about school start times. They are in training for the real world, yes. Key word is "training." They are getting used to having time structures, but that doesn't mean that they have to be as rigidly early as in the working world. This is school, not their career, and they are not yet responsible adults. I've met the Walker kids. I've met my kids. Some catering to the fact that they are children is done in both families. It has to be. If school starting later helps them learn about maintaining their health and also makes them healthier, won't they be better students and better balanced adults? I think Chris has blurred the lines here because some kids might mistakenly think that they are being pandered to. I think that some very clear, repetitive communication would solve that misconception.
September 8, 2010 at 3:04 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Steve_Corbin (anonymous) says...
COME ON !
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
IT'S FOR THE CHILDREN!
September 8, 2010 at 3:52 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
pencilguy (anonymous) says...
hold on.
we're talking bout all teenagers. that includes 13 year olds. many of these kids got things to do before school. high schoolers have to practice in the morning, sometimes as early as 5:00am and have practice after school till 5:00 pm. that just leaves you with the hours of 5:00pm to 7:00pm to get your 10 hrs, and thats not including the time it takes to do homework, chores, etc.
i agree with oh4theluvof, that these KIDS are not grownups yet, and thats why they are in school. To learn how to make it a grown up world. So if theyre all sleepy and tired during class, how are they going to learn to NOT be sleepy and tired?
September 8, 2010 at 4:06 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
ToxicPink (anonymous) says...
I don't have a problem with starting school later. Let's do it.
I just happen to think that the school year should last LONGER.
Yeah, that's right...shorten your summer vacation.
September 8, 2010 at 4:11 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
lowereastside (anonymous) says...
Excellent article. That is what I tried to impress on my kids and they have all been out of the house at 18 with steady full time jobs and live in their own homes. Unfortunately they are pandering to the grandkids way too much. So even though they turned out great, they seem to be over compensating for something they missed in their childhood.
September 8, 2010 at 4:16 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
oh4theluvof (anonymous) says...
toxicpink,
What do you think the reasoning, purpose and outcome of that would be?
September 8, 2010 at 4:22 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
tbluma (anonymous) says...
Think of how many parents would love 12 months of school.
Then they'd have a babysitter all year.
September 8, 2010 at 4:36 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
ToxicPink (anonymous) says...
Tbluma, your wife would be thrilled years down the line with that. =P
If we're going to start the school later in the day, we'd go longer to make up for the work? Plus, I don't think kids need that long of a vacation anyway, I feel like I wasted my summers and I think we should be in school longer. Perhaps then we can have a smaller work load on the kids so they'd be able to concentrate on tasks for longer and fit more into their day in regards to activities if they didn't have homework in every class every night.
September 8, 2010 at 4:45 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
ToxicPink (anonymous) says...
Oh that was sarcasm, I was really bad with that. I was leaning towards she'd be upset she'd miss time off with the grandkid. =o
September 8, 2010 at 4:46 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
oh4theluvof (anonymous) says...
State law requires public schools to provide 1,116 academic hours per year. An academic hour is actually 50 min. Classroom time in the grade schools of this district exceed that by about 243 hours per year or 1.4 hours every day. We could easily shorten the school days and the school year and put most extra-curriculars in the summer (admittedly, not a couple of sports unless the school trend would break away from the professional one which wouldn't hurt anything) and get these kids the sleep they need, the summers they want, the babysitting most parents want and the education they need.
This is not rocket science.
September 8, 2010 at 5:43 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
oh4theluvof (anonymous) says...
This could help ensure the funding goes for education first, too.
September 8, 2010 at 5:59 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
ToxicPink (anonymous) says...
Speaking of funding, I heard a rumor some classes can't allow the students to take books home to study because they couldn't afford it.
Can anyone verify? And if so, how come this hasn't been reported on? Its sad if its true.
September 8, 2010 at 6:27 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
create (anonymous) says...
Little by little, books are being sold in disk form. I don't know about this district, but in my dealings with the Houghton Mifflin textbook company, that is what I learned. I don't know if the kid gets the disk, but I'm guessing they do. Large districts are already moving toward this new method because it is less expensive for the publisher who then passes that savings on to the districts. Makes sense to me.
September 8, 2010 at 6:49 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
reddog (K. B. Thomas Jr.) says...
If you can't sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there worrying. It's the worry that get's you, not the lack of sleep. Dale Carnegie.
September 8, 2010 at 9:41 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
kitty93 (anonymous) says...
As a high school student, i would have to say that starting school thirty minutes later would not boost the sleep schedule of most students substantually, if at all. I get 7 hours of sleep a night on average, and this is the first i have heard of teenagers needing 10 hours. Even in our high school pyschology class, we are taught that the sufficient amount of sleep can be anywhere from 6-8 hours a night for teenagers.
September 9, 2010 at 7:59 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
HenryVIII (anonymous) says...
Just stock your kid's mini-fridge with Red Bull. They'll be fine.
'enry
September 9, 2010 at 3:30 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )