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Comment by JoeAltmaier | Hacker News Reader

Oh the children!

Give me a break. Go to school in the dark, or come home in the dark. Do that one time of year, or another. It all comes out in the wash.

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I would also note that in the northern states, children go to school in the dark (and often also come home in the dark) regardless of DST/ST, because we hold school over winter, and we get about 8-9 hours of sunlight a day in the winter.

Better to come home in the sunlight. Even if you have indoor sports after school now you have some time to potentially absorb vitamin D. Not much absorbing you are doing in the morning shuffling to get ready for school.

Take a pill.

It's unsafe. A child is more likely to be hit by a car when it is dark. With the current system they can leave for school and come home when there is light.

Shouldn't they just go to school later when it's darker? They could come up with a policy to start school later and get out later in the winter or something. Why does the entire country have to modify their clocks for a few minority use cases?

Sure, then move the start times of the school to a safe time. The time zone changes kill people.

Is it society's time-keeping system that is at fault, or the school system's start time? Cuz I kinda think organized school systems with rigid start times are a later development.

That's not true in the northern states anyway.

I have a feeling quite a few people commenting don't live in northern states and thinks there's plenty of light to go around if it were just aligned right.

The demographic center of the US has drifted South over the past 50 years

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_center_of_the_United_Stat...

Or living in countries north of northern US states. They should come visit a higher latitude in winter

Basically because of the Gulf Stream influence on climate, I suspect a lot of Americans would be surprised how far north Europe is compared to the US. (And therefore that you deal with darkness in the morning and the evening for a decent chunk of the year.)

Ban cars around schools.

Some places, at some times of year.

Cool. Teach your kid to not run into the middle of the street then?

Provide pedestrian pathways/walkways? Idk maybe make walking a good thing?

Many ways to do this instead of, “children can only be outside when the sun is at high noon!!”

Day 1: teach small child French

Day 2: child now speaks fluent French!

And so it is with running into the street.

Morning and evening sunlight depends a lot on the latitude.

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