While I believe this research is pretty recent so it may have been impossible for your parents to know this, saying that to a high school student is particularly cruel. Modern research shows that teenagers are biologically driven to keep later hours. The average teenager just won't function as well on a morning schedule. Sure, there will still be some exceptions who work best with an early morning schedule, but most of them will function better with a later schedule.
The idea of getting used to it just doesn't hold up, because when they become older most of them will have their bodies change such that they work better with earlier schedules than they did as teens.
I am a strong supporter of having our high schools start later. We have a lot of evidence at this point that it would be far better for the students. We'd have likely gains in health (both physical and mental, since we're starting to learn that chronic lack of sleep or sleep problems contributes to the likelihood of having mental health problems when we used to think the causation ran purely the other way), learning (you learn better when reasonably awake), and safety (mainly for things like teen driving). It's not a magic cure-all that will fix all of society's ills, but it does seem a significant set of benefits.
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Date: 7/26/09 10:31 pm (UTC)From:The idea of getting used to it just doesn't hold up, because when they become older most of them will have their bodies change such that they work better with earlier schedules than they did as teens.
I am a strong supporter of having our high schools start later. We have a lot of evidence at this point that it would be far better for the students. We'd have likely gains in health (both physical and mental, since we're starting to learn that chronic lack of sleep or sleep problems contributes to the likelihood of having mental health problems when we used to think the causation ran purely the other way), learning (you learn better when reasonably awake), and safety (mainly for things like teen driving). It's not a magic cure-all that will fix all of society's ills, but it does seem a significant set of benefits.