Tim Leyden
Leyden, a teacher for more than 20 years, teaches social studies and AP psychology at Beaverton High School and is a member of the nonprofit Startschoollater.net. He lives in Beaverton.
Oregon is missing a once-in a lifetime, golden opportunity to be a truly progressive leader by educational and societal standards. COVID-19 has transformed the workings of our world, but it is possible that within the crisis and challenges it has wrought, it can bring about changes to improve the well-being and happiness of so many of us.
How? Change our school schedule.
At three levels, micro to macro, altering the current school day, week and year could transform how we live our lives in this state long known for its innovative ideas.
School start times: The Centers for Disease Control, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association, American Academy of Sleep Medicine and other medical organizations consider early school start times a growing public health concern and recommend middle and high schools start no earlier than 8:30 a.m. Shifts in teen circadian clocks, driven by biology, dispose them to stay up later and sleep in longer. Early school start times deprive teens of sufficient sleep which can negatively affect physical health, mental health as well as impede learning. Various studies cited by the AAP suggest that later school start times are linked to improved attendance as well as improvements in academic performance. The hierarchy of needs principles suggest that when basic human needs (e.g. sleep) are not met, then more higher level functions (e.g. learning Algebra, studying the history of protest in the U.S.) cannot be properly attained.
The four-day school week: Currently, our societal norm of two-day weekends amounts to 28.6% of non-school (and work) related freedom. How many of us — parents, students and teachers alike — view our true weekends as essentially one day long? Oftentimes, we are too tired on Friday night to enjoy ourselves and spend Sunday fretting about the impending work week, leaving Saturday as the only genuine day of rest. Is this really enough to recharge our collective batteries?
However, some are floating the idea of three-day weekends as a post-coronavirus change to consider, both for company cost-cutting and, as New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern suggested, to help boost the tourism industry.
Does this require buy-in from all sectors of society? Yes! The change is not without challenge, but the sum total of reduced stress, more free time for family, friends and non-work activities outweighs the current set up for our work-life balance.
Lastly, the school year: As a veteran high school teacher who has taught all grade levels and has two teens of my own, I am all too familiar with the reality of using the first part of our traditional school year to catch students up on material, concepts and general thinking skills which go fallow over summer vacation. We no longer live in a society driven by summer harvest by the masses. Year-round schooling is the practical answer. Not only is the problem of remediation for lost learning done away with, but the other boogeyman of work and education—burnout—is vanquished as well, as total vacation and break time remains the same, but is spread out more evenly throughout the calendar year.
As we struggle to cope with the difficulties the COVID-19 crisis has created, perhaps this is the time to take the longer view at the confluence of school schedules and the well-being of society at-large. We should recognize this as the rare opportunity it is to make some truly transformative, positive life improvements for all: from students to parents to teachers to the state as a whole. Oregon can lead the country in betting big.
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September 02, 2020 at 08:30PM
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Opinion: An opportunity to pull an educational, societal win from the COVID-19 pandemic - oregonlive.com
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