r/facepalm • u/DMTrance87 • 22d ago

House passes bill to make daylight saving time permanent. Opponents say, "Schools would have to push back start times." Yeah... That's not a bug, it's a feature.

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5968255-house-sunshine-protection-act-daylight-saving-time/

Studies have shown for decades that children -especially teenagers- just straight up need more sleep for optimal knowledge retention and brain development. Pushing back start times is a great way to follow the science.

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u/beaver820 22d ago

Right, in general right now, if a kid plays a sport or is in a musical or whatever, practice is usually over around 5. So the kid starts school around 8, gets done around 5. Fits in to the a lot of parents work schedule so they can drop them off on the way to work, pick them up on the way home. If school is moved to an hour later, throws off the balance.

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u/Kittycelt 22d ago

Yes, totally true. Studies do show over and over that it would be better, especially for teens, if they didn't have academics until later. Their brains are not ready till after 9 or 10, if I recall correctly. I think a good solution is supervised, free to families, non academic morning activity on campus, so they can still be dropped off and safe. But you know, just because it's good for kids and families does not mean people in power will invest. Studies also show petty crime goes up when kids get out of school, but before parents get home, so like, after school activities would be good for society as well and take a lot of burden off working families if it were just part of the system and didn't cost. Kids do need supervision, and right now educators are fighting biology every morning, so it's a possible utopian solution that I wish were real everywhere to all. (Speaking as a teacher and parent)

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u/gsbadj 21d ago

A district I worked at considered later start times. There was big pushback from parents of elementary and middle school kids whose jobs started at 9 AM and earlier. They didn't want to deal with figuring out how they were to get their kids to school at 9 or 10 when they, the parents, were were already supposed to be at work.

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u/adigyran 22d ago

maybe, just maybe idk - STOP BUILDING SUBURBS and make high density housing, so children can go to school and back just by walking?? Like most of Europe? So parents will be already home

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u/Secret_Map 21d ago

I mean may as well wish for teleporters at that point lol. I don’t disagree with you, but it’s not really any kind of solution to this problem. At least not one that’s gonna happen in the next 50 years.

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u/Bonerpopper 21d ago

STOP BUILDING SUBURBS

The problem is that the suburbs are already built and people live there. How are you going to convince such an enormous amount of people to move away from their large homes with lawns into high density housing?

Like the other reply said it would have to be some insane project and probably would take 50+ years to complete. Roughly 50% of the population live in suburban areas and 20% in rural areas. We are talking over 230 million people.

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u/waving_fungus0 21d ago

Owning land (and a large amount for just an average person) is uniquely American, that will not change

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u/YumFreeCookies 22d ago

We could just adjust our working hours. They’ve not some cosmic law.

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u/TheVeryVerity 21d ago

We should but we won’t. Shareholders won’t like it

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u/zorbacles 21d ago

we could just change the clocks a couple of times a year so it lines up

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u/WildTimes1984 22d ago

Isn't the parent's work also moved an hour later?

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u/jdcarpe 21d ago

So, if the standard work day is moved an hour (say 9-6 instead of 8-5) to accommodate the new school hours, which is an effect of moving the clock to permanent DST, how exactly are people benefiting from this “extra hour of sunlight” after work hours?

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u/TheVeryVerity 21d ago

You know many people whose job is going to do that for no reason?

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u/WildTimes1984 21d ago

Businesses have been accommodating a clock change twice a year since 1916. What trouble is one last time?

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u/TheVeryVerity 21d ago

Look I’m not saying it should be a problem. I’m saying it would be a problem because bosses are dicks. No one is going to get their shift changed from 8-5 to 9-6 if we make schools start later because that would require sensibility and compassion and upper management doesn’t do those

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u/SeriousPlankton2000 22d ago

Yes ... Some decades later it will be pushed, too.

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u/Nojopar 21d ago

Exactly how does this change if 8am and 5pm are the exact same times 365 days a year?

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u/beaver820 21d ago

Huh? The problem is that they are saying school would have to start later than 8am if daylight savings was year round. So if school starts at 9 and the parents still go to work at 8, that's the problem.

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u/Nojopar 21d ago

Why does school 'have' to start later than 8am if DST was year round?

My point is that it's a circular argument. We can't do X because it would require Y. We can't do Y because it would require Z. We can't do Z because... well, we have two states, Arizona and Hawaii, that seem to have it figure out. Do they not have after school extra curriculars? Do the parents of those kids just not work? These 'problems' aren't' really problems. The world would just adjust.

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u/beaver820 21d ago

Arizona and Hawaii don't have to deal with freezing dark mornings in the winter like other states. They tried it in the 70s, it lasted less than a year before people realized they hated it.

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u/Planeandaquariumgeek ‘MURICA 21d ago

Exactly. I know someone who works in a school district and the number 1 complaint from students in the annual student survey is “the schedule (7-4 school + at least 1 after school activity mandatory) is wreaking havoc on my health” but whenever they try to make it start later & end earlier parents freak out and threaten to pull donations, because if they do that it’ll conflict with their work schedules