Why would elementary school start so early?
Asked by
funkdaddy (
17777
)
February 25th, 2018
My daughter’s elementary school starts at 7:20 and they can only arrive from 7:20 until 7:40. At 7:40 the doors lock automatically.
To be there about 7:30, with only a 10 minute drive, I have to get her and my two-year-old up by 6:30 in the morning. That seems really early for five-year-old kids. Am I just used to being a late riser? Is this normal?
It doesn’t seem like the day is balanced and there’s some quirk that makes it all work out to justify the early start. They eat lunch at 10:45 and are done for the day at 2:45. I can’t imagine this fits anyone’s working schedule or makes anyone’s life easier. I don’t see any way this benefits the kids, or even the teachers. It would seem someone with the district must know that, right?
The only upside I see is they must be able to use one set of buses and bus the elementary kids in first, then middle school, then high school. That doesn’t seem like enough to warrant an entire generation of sleep deprived kids, but again, I feel like I’m missing something.
Can anyone explain this to me? What am I missing?
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8 Answers
I have no idea. My grade school started at 8:20. My High school and middle school start at 7:20. And the reason for my school district doing it is because of the buses thing and drivers having to make it to school in time for kids to not be late
One benefit would be that the kids would have longer after school time. More time to expel all the energy bottled up by sitting in class…
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That sounds crazy to have school start that early, especially in Winter.
I think you’d have to ask someone who knows. Sounds like a bad choice to me. The door locks sound disturbing to me, too.
(BTW, sad and semi-relevant: I know of a case this year where a young girl waiting alone for a school bus to take her to school before dawn, was hit and killed by a motorist who didn’t even realize what he had done.)
That seems pretty crazy. Ours was always after 8.
But this is probably a godsend for parents that are single or ones where there are two parents and they both have day jobs.
It seems like it would be better to have school start at 8 but have a place parents could drop the kids off early if they had to be at work at by 8.
What time does the high school start? I read recently that teenagers need more sleep than younger kids. If the high school starts later, maybe this is part of the reason.
Generally, bus routes have a great deal of influence in start times.
I grew up in a community with many farms. Our high school started earlier than the elementary school because the older kids were already up to do chores.
It is usually as you suspected for the efficiency of the bus schedule although back in my day with my kids it was the high school that started earliest. Part of that reason was so that the sports teams would have more time after school for practice and games.
Perhaps another reason for the elementary school’s early start is so working parents can get their kids off to school before they have to leave for work.
It’s inconvenient whichever way you cut it.
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