Monday, November 2, 2009

HONORS example essay

The Sleeping Giant of School Schedules

Many people who debate educational issues are aware of the metaphor that compares the biology of students to the lighthouse that cannot move. The metaphor extends to suggest that teaching strategies are ships that, though stubborn, can be changed to accommodate the needs of students as mandated by that biology. In recent years, in fact, in recent decades, many adjustments have changed the shape of the classroom around the nation, and in many ways, these changes, such as increased technology in the school and more appreciation for controlled chaos, have had great success. Still, one fact about the standard school day is detrimental to the overall development of a young brain, and the stubbornness of the establishment promises to keep that one fact from ever changing. That fact is that teenagers are not awake for the first third of the class day, and as a result, they lose valuable instructional time. Research proves that teenagers are nocturnal creatures, and their learning has greatly suffered from the diurnal rotations of the normal workday. In order to help young learners, and thusly our future, attain all the success that they can, teachers and administrators need to change the hours of the typical school day despite the inconvenience it may cause to parents and other professionals.

“In many animal societies, adolescents are banned from the group,” writes Jessica Beach in her depiction of the parallels between humans and many other animal species (100). Her research has shown that adolescents of many species reflect a sleep pattern very distinct from that of the adults in the community. The reason is simple: “For the sake of self-preservation, adolescents, especially males, must operate during the hours of slumber for the mature, more dominant males” (Beach 192). Because adolescents pose a threat to the ruling figure in many animal communities, they are exiled to be on their own. In an attempt to exploit the same food and water resources that they remember from their youth, these animals must approach such locations when the older males no longer threaten them. As a result, the biorhythms of most adolescent animals change to enable them to function at different hours. In the human world, this means that adults, teachers included, have returned from their former adolescent night carousing, and they can function very efficiently in the prescribed workday. The youth of the community, however, especially in school, are at a disadvantage.

The average teenager needs about nine and a half hours of sleep to function at their best, and “This sleep is necessary to the total physical and mental development of the human being” (Crowley 88). If school starts at 8:00 am, the average teenager probably needs to be awake by 6:45 am in order to prepare for breakfast and the commute to school. If that student needs nine and a half hours of sleep, they need to be asleep by 9:15 pm. Anybody who has lived with a teenager knows that a bedtime like that would be impossible to maintain. It is not just because teenagers choose to stay up late. In fact, adolescents are simply suffering from the effect of their natural biorhythms, “The physiological cycles that determine our sleep and wake schedules” (Finklestein 12). So, physically, teenagers cannot be rested by the time they start school, and in fact, these biorhythms prevent them from being fully prepared to learn in the early hours of the school day.

Many people have thought about the possibility of changing school schedules, but those ideas usually meet great resistance because of the existing routines of adults and the entire working world. Parents would not be able to drop off students while en route to work, and teachers would not be able to live normally with spouses that are not on the same education schedule. Because the students that are suffering form the basis for the future of civilization, these objections seem trivial, and therefore, school schedules “Must be altered to account for the learning styles of young students” (Weiland 108). Furthermore, because of the advances in construction and lighting technology, extra-curricular activities will not suffer the onset of darkness as they once might have in the past.

Furthermore, students would benefit greatly if all extra-curricular activities had to change their schedules. For instance, studies prove that, “Students who participate in sports or art early in the day perform better on standardized tests” (Weiland 223). So, practices that, at one point, kept students away from home in the late evenings could be moved to morning hours to accommodate a change in the schedule, and that physical activity early would be more beneficial than the same activities in the afternoon hours.

Students will benefit from the change in schedule. “In a landmark decision, Western School in East Occidental, Maine recently changed their schedule to accommodate the sleep patterns of their students,” writes Christopher Crowley (178). This change resulted in an immediate increase in test scores, and “Western School’s principal, Louisa Louis, earned a Nobel Prize for Education when the school’s standardized test scores doubled the average of all other schools in the United States”(Crowley 115). With such incredible results in Maine, other schools should be anxious to change schedules.

Standardized test scores are not the only statistics that improve when a school changes its schedule. In fact, “Teson High School in New Mexico has completely replaced all of their teachers with peer educators” as a result of their decision to change schedules (Weiland 208). The students at Teson began creating lesson plans that far outshined those of the staff at Teson, and class presentations often created more of a stir than the classes planned by the teachers. After several instances of students correcting the misinformation that the teachers were providing, the administration took the bold step of employing the top five percent of the school instead of the existing faculty. Since then, Teson has recorded the highest college placement record in New Mexico’s history. With standardized test scores and college placement improving as a result of the schedule change, it is clear that the schedule benefits students, and when students who used to struggle can thrive to the point of leading a classroom of their peers, it is clear that the adjustment of class schedules can lead to a brighter future.

Though many people feel that a major overhaul of the school schedule would create insurmountable obstacles, the science and the evidence shows that teenagers would greatly benefit from a school schedule more compatible with their natural Circadian Rhythms. Teaching has long been a source of creativity and innovation, and the education system has a chance to usher in a new era of success. Teaching strategies are necessarily fluid to accommodate the hardwiring of human beings and the multiple intelligences present in the classroom, and the schedule of a school day is the last mainstay of resistance to unlocking the full potential of young learners.

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