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Comment by cool_dude85 | Hacker News Reader

>High school started earliest, then middle school, then primary school was latest. That's backwards from how it should have been, if anyone in my city had understood how the circadian rhythm changes during adolescence.

The explanation I always heard for this structure, very common in the US, is to allow for after school jobs for high schoolers.

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Weirdly teachers and the education system are some of the most anti-science when it comes to how they structure anything, they seem to ignore all recent discoveries about neurological development and refuse to integrate it into their degrees and certifications and the only changes administrations are willing to make are more what benefits them and the teachers (making kids take work home rather than doing it in class and guiding them), not the students.

An observation from my parents (who are now retired but were both career teachers/school administrators) is that for many teachers their entire life is spent in a school or uni, without a lot of "real world workplace experience". As such many teachers can be very rigid in how they expect the world to be and their acceptance of change.

That's one of 3 explanations I've heard. #2 is to make time for after school sports. #3 is so that teens can be home to watch their younger siblings.

The real reason is #4: it's simpler for the school, as they don't have to run several different bus services.

They wouldn't have to if they swapped the schedules.

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