10% Asleep

There are a significant number of persons whose biological clock simply can’t handle mornings. I know a few. My friend the painter who makes flowers that bloom, only at night. My father who was mad at himself when he woke up on a weekend at noon. My brother who has had to learn to force himself to get to his teaching job on time. Yes, it is probably genetic.

Approximately 10% of all students have brains that simply don’t function at the time students are asked to begin. Curiously none of this is necessary. I think it was John Dewey High School who used computers to create individual schedules. How hard could it be in the modern age to do the same.

We could also stop having so much of our athletic and artistic activities “after school.” When I taught and directed theatre productions, it was for many the thing they were learning. It was what made them excited to be in school.

The number of hours that schools are open is already way beyond the traditional times, so it isn’t a funding question.

Not that I think the total hours in classrooms should be extended — that probably should shorten if anything to provide greater access to activities which are far reaching and balance the small spaces of academic study to allow the world in.

Faculty more nightly oriented could be so employed by their choice.

And yes, Modern factories are more and more likely to have nighttime shifts.

Perhaps for community sake we might want to keep or extend the weekend, make voting day a national holiday, and make travel much, much easier. How hard could it be?

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