Microblog Memes

I had to take bus at 6:00 in high school...

I was an incredibly angsty teenager, mad at the world and hostile to just about everyone by default. Apathetic, grumpy, and uninterested in physical activity or the things I liked as a preteen.

After having a baby and getting very little sleep for 6 months I recognized some of my old patterns. Turns out, it wasn't just part of being a teen, I was chronically sleep deprived. I was up at 6am most days back then, when I would sleep until 1pm on weekends. I think a lot of teens are unfairly characterized as angry and defiant when they're operating on half or a quarter of the sleep they need.

The way I see it, you're probably freest from the ages one to four Around the age of five you're shipped away for your body to be stored They promise education, but really they give you tests and scores And they predictin' prison population by who scoring the lowest

So much of the education system is centered on child abuse and grooming children to accept abuse as adults

My mental health radically improved my senior year when I was ahead on credits and could skip the first block of classes each morning.

the timings for school and its length were not dictated by health needs nor education needs.

it was chosen to match parents work schedule, and to aclimatize children to factory work.

so its not out of ignorance of the childs well-being, but indifference to it

You can't cause delinquency if you're too busy getting 8 hours of sleep.

And god forbid your circadian rhythm doesn't align and you fall asleep in class.

You can get referred for a drug test because only high people fall asleep during the day.

https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2017/04/why-early-school-start-times-are-a-threat-to-public.html

https://time.com/7202888/stop-early-school-start-times-essay/

In my 30s and I'm still mad about it.

Especially considering how much time at school was an absolute waste.

One reason for the early starts for high schools is that by staggering the start times for high school, middle school, and elementary school, school districts can use fewer buses and fewer drivers. If all the schools started at the same (more reasonable) time, you'd need three times as many buses and drivers and each driver would only get one or two hours a day (and thus would find something else to do, making the existing shortage of drivers even worse). The district I drive for has a transportation budget of about $3 million a year - we would not be able to afford $9 million a year and still afford our administrators' enormous salaries.

If you just started all schools later by an hour, the elementary school kids would start at 9:30 AM which would not work out very well, either.

It's nuts to me that American schools start so early. Ours had first bell around 8:30. By high school is was closer to nine.

Yea that only happens because capitalism needs your parents to slave their ass off which can only happen if their kids go to school earlier than their already early starting job

High school teacher here. Obviously, I don't speak for everyone, but many of us wish school would start at a more reasonable time for students. We don't enjoy trying to teach first (and second, and third) period classes where many students are either absent or asleep. And of course, we care about the students and know it would be much healthier for them to sleep in. School can start around 10:00, thanks. But, as others have pointed out, the schedule is not dictated by what is best for the students.

Edit: some of the students in the schools I work at have to get up around 5:00. The often wait for 30+ minutes for buses to come (but that is a "the district doesn't care about the students" issue, not a start time issue).

for years my mom forced us to go.to bed at 8pm ( I only.rebel.when I was about 12). All my childhood. Mind you we didn't had phones so we would be there on the bed in the dark THINKING. And that's why I have anxiety.

Nothing lowkey about it. Shit's fucked up.

I was in my late 20s when I realised just how much stress morning stuff is causing me, and had caused me for two decades.
(my solution was just to come to the office at 11 most days & now I also sleep more hours on average, but that's is a separate issue for me)

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41582-025-01106-6

Abstract: "Aspects of modern society, such as artificial lighting and rigid schedules, create ‘social jetlag’ — a mismatch between biological chronotypes and societal demands. This circadian misalignment particularly affects evening chronotypes, leading to sleep deprivation, mental health issues and physical disorders. Flexible schedules and environmental modifications could restore natural sleep patterns and improve well-being."

Every year I tell timetabling "don't inflict 9am classes on my students, it provably punishes poorer students (commute costs) and drives poor engagement", every year they ignore me.

Many of your teachers hated morning classes too.

In middle school, I took what we called 0 period PE so that I could do a double band period (symphonic and jazz) and that shit started at 640. Thankfully that was only 2 years, and these days I hate waking up before 730.

Yep. Ours went from 0730 or so to 3:30. But it was a somewhat rural area, so if you took the bus you’d have to be on the bus by 0640-45, which means getting up at 0600 or so, and not getting home until after 4 pm. Then there was homework…

E: just looked at my former school’s sked. Started at 07:25AM.

I remember in high school we had before school weight lifting which started so early. So start with that, do a full day of class, after school sports and then homework before doing it again. Pretty crazy how many things were crammed in a day.

Just abuse in general. Descartes died because he had to wake up early.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Descartes#Death

My high school and middle school (they were right next to each other and shared buses) started at 7:15 AM, half the year it was dark when the bus picked us up and we lived in the far south where days didn't get super short. It was bullshit then and it is bullshit now. It was nice to get out of school before 2PM I guess.