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Column: 10 a.m. starts -- a nice dream, an impossible reality

By Sarah Pfander
Published: Monday, May 8, 2006 - 5:42am
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By Sarah Pfander
Gargoyle staff reporter
Posted Monday, May 8, 2006, The OG, opinions

Teenagers have been dreaming of a school day in which classes don't start until later in the morning since the beginning of public education. But it seems highly unlikely, even with the proposed schedule changes on the table, that this dream will ever become a reality.

While there are some pros, the one overwhelming con is this: Parents can't get their kids to school at 10 a.m. It is just a fact of life. A majority of families have two working parents, and both parents probably have to get to work between 8 and 8:30. So who will take the kid to school?

Maybe some families work something out. Maybe some hire a driver to drive their kids to school at 10. Maybe some have their kids ride their bikes or take a bus. Maybe some carpool with another family. But, you are always going to have one kid who cannot get to school.

The only way for Uni to possibly make this work is to set up a bus system for the kids who aren't close enough in town to take an MTD.

Yet, for some reason, I don't see this happening. If start time were pushed back to 10 for some days, the only people you are making happier are the students, and when has Uni ever worried about that?

Comments

May 8, 2006 - 5:12pm — max goldberg (not verified)

I agree with you that the 10-4 short day isn't feasible, but I actually like the 8-2 day better, personally. Not that I have any vested interest in the matter as I won't go to this school after a couple more weeks, but it seems like people would wake up groggy at 10 am and would feel off of their normal schedule for the rest of the day. It seems better just to get the school day over with as soon as possible. In any case, I don't know why this issue is being discussed at all by the administration, as it is impossible to implement effectively and not even all students would appreciate it. I don't see any reason to change the status quo if a working model has been developed already.
May 8, 2006 - 7:17pm — Steve Rayburn (not verified)

First of all, of course Max, who proudly touts his conservativism, wants to maintain the status quo -- as does most of the Uni community, putting some doubt to the common thought of how "liberal" we are. Second, it is not the administration that suggests it, although we all love to hang the shingle of enemy on them for any change. This suggestion came from -- and will be decided by -- the faculty. Certainly, though, parents are being asked for their input. Much of the recent research, by the way, claims a later start time would be better suited to teenage sleep patterns. Finally, parents -- even with two working -- have to deal with the early dismissal since most are not off work by 2. They adjust. It is what adults do. Just won't work? We may put that to the test.
May 8, 2006 - 10:16pm — dporreca (not verified)

It's funny that so many people immediately attribute changes at Uni to "the administration." I suspect Max was just reflexively using "administration" as a generic term for "people at Uni who aren't students." Michael Belmont's original article does a good job of making clear (at least in my reading) that the proposed changes come from the faculty. As Mr. Rayburn points out, parents adjust as necessary to changing circumstances. I'm interested in seeing how students react to the proposal.
May 9, 2006 - 4:28pm — Sarah Pfander (not verified)

In terms of parents adjusting to the current 8-2 days, they don't have to. Almost every student I know spends their afternoon on campus, and their parents don't pick them up until later in the day. However, if that were to apply to 10 am starts (parents not changing their normal schedules), the whole point of the later start is lost, as the student still has to wake up at his/her normal time so their parent can drop them off and get to work. Plus, if some parents do insist on dropping their kid off at the normal 8 am time, then you still have unsupervised kids within the vicinity.

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