thesilversverker t1_jcf7lc6 wrote on March 16, 2023 at 12:21 PM

Reply to comment by Sixfeatsmall05 in Do you think Maine should mandate later start times for high schools? by benpinette

Why not do sports before school? Early start for sports, school at 9. If it's important, your kid will get up early, and kids who want to prioritize learning can do that.

Sixfeatsmall05 t1_jcfaz8b wrote on March 16, 2023 at 12:51 PM

You clearly didn’t play sports in Maine in high school. Teams travel 1-2 hours for games. Your point is exactly the same point against the data- those who want to prioritize learning will do so regardless as to whether it’s a little harder because their bodies clocks aren’t aligned to the system. Kids succeed now, they go on to great schools etc. we could make it more optimal with a different time start but we would lose other aspects, like school sports, that are important parts of their growth. Instead we ask them to work a little harder to overcome the time issue and most do very well.

thesilversverker t1_jcfgau7 wrote on March 16, 2023 at 1:34 PM

School sports arent important for their growth, and they are clearly less important for the student body than academics. You're suggesting its good to make learning harder, because sports kids and parents dont want to bother with any effort.

Why not make the volunteers (athletes) put the extra work in, rather than everyone?

I also did sports, but it's absurd to suggest those are a valid reason to disadvantage 95% of the student body

Sixfeatsmall05 t1_jcfuyde wrote on March 16, 2023 at 3:15 PM

It’s cost benefit. A 2018 study on this found a 4.5% increase in grades between early and later starting times. We aren’t talking huge changes here. I would think that as a culture we see school sports as at least a 5% net positive or growth for adolescents.

thesilversverker t1_jcfwpeg wrote on March 16, 2023 at 3:26 PM

> I would think that as a culture we see school sports as at least a 5% net positive or growth for adolescents.

I think you're right on this, as far as cultural perceived benefits.

Proving that our populace is bad at math, and should have played fewer sports.

50k in sports, 175k total students. We should disregard the minority interest, sports would need to be like a 17% bump to break even.

Sixfeatsmall05 t1_jcg2pbl wrote on March 16, 2023 at 4:04 PM

But if we are saying that at best a later start is going to net us only a 5% increase in scores, which is what data shows, is that worth all the structural changes we would need to make to Get there when we haven’t fully made all possible changes within the current system such as more teachers, more technology etc?

wormpussy t1_jcg9hm3 wrote on March 16, 2023 at 4:47 PM

A 5% increase in scores across the state of Maine would be a huge benefit to our communities, if people like you didn’t keep holding these poor kids back intellectually then we could probably snowball it into a higher percentage. Why do you see an issue with a more educated population?