First Danish school for children who does not get up early.

[Covergaard]

http://nyhederne.tv2.dk/article.php/id-6507942.html?rss (In Danish)

In Denmark we generallly acknowledge that most people can be put in two catagories, when it comes to how they sleep:

Type A: wakes up early, going to bed early
Type B: wakes up late, going to bed late.

Out in the workplace, flex-time takes care of the problem. A lot of shops often close down about 8 or 9 p.m, so there are jobs for people of type B. But the education system has not in the past given possibilities for type B people. That is changing now. Now a new high school is opening, where the first class starts at 1.30 p.m.

So we are going to establish kindergardens, public schools and high school for those people, who does not sleep as our culture demands.

How about that?

[Anonymous]

What about a school for chicken fuckers? You gonna handle that also?





Truth be told.. Your system sounds fucking retarded and an excessive demand on the teachers.

[Ursus]

Sounds interesting (the school, not the chicken afficionados).. . This will no doubt be very accommodating for parents who are working the later shifts (and, e.g., who have kindergarteners).  But it does rather make me feel a little cynical about a world where both parents need to work in order to survive financially... (and hence need schools to work around their schedules as there is no flexibility with both working).

[Covergaard]

What if the teachers share sleeping habits with the students? We have to acknowledge that we are living in 2007. The world is not stopped while we are asleep.

Some of the work in my project is done in the Far East. I am not at work while they program their 8 hours per day. In fact they are 6 time zones away from me, so I would be in bed when they goes home from work. Luckily I have a person at my company, who goes home from work about 10 p.m. or later, so he keeps the communication going for as long as he can and I get fresh material to work with, when I start on work in the morning.

We need people, who sleep the whole morning away.

[Oz girl]

Those who work in finance also sometimes work crazy hours as well. I am intruiged by this.

[mbnh31782]

I am not a morning person... though mind you,  i'm posting this at 6 am eastern standard time in the united states.  I'm only up at this hour because i HAVE to be thanks to my job.  I think that a later school would be a wonderful idea.  it would also alleviate the issue of overcrowding in public schools.  If i had my way, i wouldnt wake up until about 10 am or 10:30 am and go to bed between 1 and 3 am.  i'm typically a night owl, but unfortunately due to my job (school bus driver) I have to be up early.

[Truth Searcher]

I have read studies that show teenagers biological clocks actually are more in tune with type B.  And that staying up late ... wanting to sleep late are more the result of physiological make up than sleep choices.  The researchers in the one study actually poised the question ... (very paraphrased) that if this is the natural sleep order of teenagers, then why do our high schools operate from 7:30 until 2:30?  

Well probably because this works better for the adult teacher and administrators and because this is the format for the average American work day.

Many colleges understand this.   Many (if not most) college classes do not meet until 9 AM or after ... and most offer many night classes.  

Interesting concept.

[Anonymous]

I think this is a fantastic idea!

[Anonymous]

In several things, the US doesn't behave the same as in Europe, you would think they would more but they dont. The system described by the poster does sound interesting. I dont see where it would cause any harm, but it is definately different from anything we have here. When I lived in Spain as a child, I went to a British private day school. It was very small, maybe, 200 students total. It was 1st through 5th grade. Several Americans attended, as well as Australians, Brits, and some half Spanish half British children. But to me, coming from the US, our hours were odd. We didnt start until 9 am, and didnt get out until 4pm. We had a long midday lunch/playtime about an hour and a half. Spanish businesses mostly opened around the same time, 9 or 9:30 (stores and offices both), but all closed for lunch, for either an hour and a half or 2 hours. Then offices would stay open until 6 or 7 pm. Stores stayed open later, til about 10pm. People ate dinner between 8 and 10pm. It all seemed odd to me but perfectly normal to them. With the midday rest (siesta) it really didnt seem weird staying up so long once you got used to it. I think its all in what your culture is used to. What seems normal to us probably seems odd to Europeans also.

[Deborah]

In our district Elementary is 7:45-2:45, Middle at 8:30-3:30, and High School at 9:00-4:15.
One complaint I frequently hear from all ages is not enough time to eat and not enough play time. I like the scenario you described Shh with the longer lunch/playtime.
The high school my older son attended for a while was as large as a small community college and they had 30 minutes for lunch. Many kids didn't eat because by the time they walked across campus, stood in the lengthy lunch line, they had about 10 minutes to eat and no social time. Social trumped eating.

[nimdA]

More than likely I think in the states there will be a push for more at home internet based learning. The student to teacher ratio is stressed to much at the moment. If they had the ability to retain teachers no doubt this idea might well have been tried out years ago.

With that assinine No Child left behind bullshit it is even harder to keep teachers around. Kids aren't even really learning much of anything anymore with the exception of how to pass a Government test. Sounds like public education is going the way of the Japanese and Korean style of regurgitate it as you go learning. I hear china is into that also.

[TheWho]

Our area is looking into extending the school day by as much as 2 hours.  They have started a few pilot programs in some school districts where the kids are falling behind and extended the school day to 8 hours.  Many of the kids like it because they can get more attention from teachers who previously would not answer questions until after class or after hours, now the classes are more instructive and interactive.  Lunch hour has been extended and music is being reintroduced onto some schools which has been pushed aside by state requirements like sex education etc.
If successful this may spread more throughout the state.  It is expensive, though, with the increase in salary and admin costs.  So there is equal pressure on each side? it will be interesting to see which way this goes.

[Anonymous]

Oh those teacher unions will be screaming and shouting the roofs off, won't they?  EXPECTING teachers to teach a full 8 hours a day? How dare they!

[Nihilanthic]

I have read studies that show teenagers biological clocks actually are more in tune with type B.  And that staying up late ... wanting to sleep late are more the result of physiological make up than sleep choices.  The researchers in the one study actually poised the question ... (very paraphrased) that if this is the natural sleep order of teenagers, then why do our high schools operate from 7:30 until 2:30?  

Well probably because this works better for the adult teacher and administrators and because this is the format for the average American work day.

Many colleges understand this.   Many (if not most) college classes do not meet until 9 AM or after ... and most offer many night classes.  

Interesting concept.

I always saw it as just controlfreakery and conditioning people to just do as told becuase "it just has to be done" without thinking too much.

Well, that and mix in a lil protestant work ethic  :roll: god knows that works better than rationality, 'cause god said so!

[Antigen]

We need people, who sleep the whole morning away.

Thanks for the affirmation. And no, I don't do chickens.