Late-Night Learning: Alternative Scheduling for the School Day

http://www.edutopia.org/cowan-sunset-alternative-schedule-video

Last semester, I took the earliest class that I have ever taken in college.  You may laugh, but the earliest class was a 9:30am on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I am not a morning person, which is very ironic to the field that I am going into, because it is usually a morning job.  But schools like this, which offer afternoon classes would work perfectly with my sleep schedule.

I think afternoon/late-night classes for students is a much better idea than making them wake up at 7am every morning.  Because many students, I will not say all, but many, participate in extra-curricular activities which go until 5pm.  So, they are at school for 10 hours from 7am-5pm, then they get home and they have an extra 5 hours (assuming they are in an AP class because they are involved in extracurriculars) of homework, that makes it 10pm.  But, breaks have to exist during studying or the student will become frustrated, so they take two hour long breaks, and that boosts it up to midnight, then they have to go to sleep and wake up early the next day.

It is a pointless cycle that makes the student very prone to sickness.  But afternoon school makes much more sense to me, because then they can have had enough sleep.  Researchers say that students need at least 8 hours of sleep per night and they are not getting that if they go to a school that starts at 7am, because homework gets in the way.  So, if they have energy and are well rested, they are much more likely to actually learn as compared to sitting in a class not learning anything.

I think that for many students, afternoon or late-night classes is the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) for them.  It is an environment when they can be in check of their emotions, because when I am tired, everything irritates me more.  So, we need to offer more of these schools, plus this school does it because many of its students work day jobs to support their families, and I think that that is true even today with regular students (students without children to take care of, but families to take care of).