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Later School Start For Teenagers Brings Drop In Absenteeism
krou writes "Monkseaton High School in North Tyneside, UK, began an experiment in October that saw its 800 pupils ranging in age from 13-19 attend school an hour later than normal, at 10am. Early results indicate that 'general absence has dropped by 8% and persistent absenteeism by 27%.' Head teacher Paul Kelley supported the idea because he believed that 'it was now medically established that it was better for teenagers to start their school day later in terms of their mental and physical health and how they learn better in the afternoon', and he now claims that the children are becoming 'happier better educated teenagers' as a result of the experiment. The experiment is being overseen by Oxford neuroscience professor Russell Foster. 'He performed memory tests on pupils at the school which suggested the more difficult lessons should take place in the afternoon. He said young people's body clocks may shift as they reach their teenage years — meaning they want to get up later not because they are lazy but because they are biologically programmed to do.'"
I bet this is just the Hawthorne Effect. I bet that if they had another school and told them that they were going to start an hour earlier, as they believed that this would allow pupils to get the work done and have more free time in the evenings, this school would also have shown an improvement.
Here's a nice BBC documentary called "The secret life of your bodyclock" about this effect. Including a piece very similar to this specific case. It can be viewed @ http://www.documentary-log.com/d379-secret-life-of-your-body-clock/
I graduated 2nd in my class, and went on to one of the top 10 engineering schools in the country. And I got up every morning on time. The trick? Eat breakfast - and I don't mean a coffee or a Snickers. Parents, feed your damn kids a real meal.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Unfounded generalization... Have a read. Especially Europe has many countries where 14 is within the bounds of age of consent. Well, unless of course you want to argue that Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain don't count as "Western Countries" any more. (From skipping over the list, the most common age would be 16, but still...)
(Not related: I found this one particularly amusing....)
Hate to break it to you, religion is generally independent (in practice) of sexuality.
I laugh at all those Church Lock-Ins they have.. do you think just because "Its wrong" that will prevent most (some I'm sure) people from exploring what this bit is between their legs? Hell.. Catholic priest are supposed to be celebrate, and we all know how THAT turned out.
I'd be interested in an honest survey of sexuality in teenagers, with questions about other social/religious views.. but good luck doing that. Alot more people are not having sex as a teenager as you might think, and not necessary because of some mythical parent figure says you should be married first.