Not only that. Starting late also creates a problem for parents.
Parents need to go to work. If kids take bus, kids usually need to board on the school bus before parents leave home. If parents drive kids to school, then the late school start time will become totally unacceptable for many parents because of the conflict with their work start time.
This leaves the question: why does work start so early? If children benefit from sleeping longer, so should adults.
People at different ages require different amounts of sleep in order to be healthy. Adults require less than children [0].
Also, one of the big problems for teenagers (the subject of the article) is that their circadian rhythm is out of phase from adults, shifted later about 2 hours [1]. Early start times don't just reduce sleep, they're also just the wrong time of day. Telling a teen to wake up at 7am is like telling an adult to wake up at 5am.
If you work 7-15h (3pm american), you still have some daylight time left at home, after work so you can do other, non-work stuff that requires daylight. If you sleep until 9 and work 10-18h, you get zero off-work daylight for most of the year.
I did that from 4 to 18 yo. It did never bother me, sometimes I literally did the whole way back running non-stop for fun, it was kind of like a roller coaster. But:
- Weather was generally good
- I obviously didn't walk alone when I was 4 yo.
We don't even know the age of those kids. Maybe they will walk to school alone... when they are older.
Unfortunately this is the kind of thing that prevents many kids from walking to school in the US, even in cities, there are often few safe walking routes, incomplete sidewalks, poorly designed intersections across wide, fast moving roads.
Sounds like a good way to get yourself a visit from CPS. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/04/13/parent...
Why’s that?
Pretty sure Otto Mann doesn’t know if you’re child is supposed to go to school today or not (scheduled absence), so the driver can’t know to expect your child or not
For what it's worth, this is a uniquely American problem; schoolchildren in Europe and Asia have no problems taking public transit while being single-digit age.
Of course, those places haven't bowed to irrational paranoia like North American countries do, but the fact remains that the assumption that children aren't capable of getting to a bus stop safely is a falsehood that fortunately only North American societies have chosen to embrace.
It's stupid, but taking that on requires people to stop listening to a certain loud minority, so it's hard to break, though some states (like Utah) have made legal inroads against them.
So I don't know which Asia you are talking about.
I grew up in a west Asian country and walked to school every days from age 6 to 18. I didn't get on public transit on my own till probably my teens either because I didn't need to!
Everywhere I needed to get to was within walking distance. I sometimes walked for an hour to get to my sister's place on the other side of town but my schools were first 5 minutes walk and then 15 minutes walk away from where my parents lived.
Your comment got it right, there is a weird paranoia in the US. Typical American parents never allow their children to do anything by themselves anymore. When I was a kid, I used to play for hours in the street from my neighborhood, sometimes climbing on trees in the wood nearby. My parents had no idea where I was or what I was doing and that was fine. I cannot even imagine what American parents would think if this happened in the US nowadays. Social services would probably be called upon my parents.
I'm convinced that having micromanaging parent is not sane for a kid's mental development.
Afternoon drop off was 1/2 mile away. A few of us walked it each day, unless weather was terrible.
Those walks home were amazing. Great times I remember fondly.
This was West Coast Rural USA, starting during late 70's.
Play, explore experiences were similar.
This can result in losing custody and other legal action against the parent: https://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/consequences-...
Many people do this just fine.
Regarding school start times, I've long said that we do it backwards. Elementary school should start first & high school last.
I'm determined to let my toddler be independent as he grows, but when I talk to other parents about this, most are convinced that if I let them out of my sight they'll be raped and murdered immediately.