Channel 4’s Paula Ebban’s report and interview with David Fleishman is here. (Mike Striar’s inevitable comment about how every elected official should be fired for not doing this years ago will likely be in the comment section.)
VIDEO: CBS Boston on Newton’s proposed later high school start times
by Village 14 | Jan 14, 2016 | Newton | 4 comments
Nice.
I admire what David Fleishman is doing. [In fact, I admire David Fleishman, and think he’s turned out to be a very good Superintendent].
But to the issue at hand… for many years the School Committee has failed to grasp the urgency of the early morning start time problem. The time for internal debate has passed. The time for study has passed. The time for public “conversation” has passed. Early morning start times are damaging the physical and mental health of 3000 Newton high school students everyday. The Mayor needs to address this problem. Under the Charter he has the authority to make this change. I hope he’ll do it in time for the start of the next school year.
An entitlement mentality of many parents interferes with the growth of their student’s independence. A later start time will effectively result in parents’ improved planning of professional work schedule, self assuring and enhancing the trust within their offspring, and by default enhancing the taking of responsibility for the life which they make for themselves. by design
Rather than entitlement, I think the phenomenon of being over protective is because of the fear that has spread about what could happen to your child/adolescent. It’s become more prevalent with the advent of 24 hour news from all over the country on the Internet which leads to some thinking crime has increased when it has gone down.
I believe strongly in later start times. I do hope that after they are in place, the discussion on relieving stress in school continues because they are just part of the problem. I know parents/teachers want their children to learn all they can but loading every subject with hours of homework can be counterproductive, in addition to days of testing.
There is still the problem of coordinating parents leaving home early with their younger children when they leave for work, while the adolescent is home and must get to school. The buses are expensive and many don’t live within walking or biking distance. When my kids were in school, buses were free so that wasn’t a problem although I ended up taking them a lot to be there at 6:30 am for sports workouts. Way too early!