Month: October 2019

Leave a comment Posted on later starts to school days

Later start times for schools benefits students

7:00 – “Good morning, Mike. Time to wake up and go to school.”

7:10 – “Mike, get out of bed.  Your breakfast is getting cold.”

7:20 – “Mike, get up now, you’re going to be late for school.”

7:30 – “Mike, if you don’t get out of bed this minute, there is no video game playing tonight!”

How often has a parent gone through this script morning after morning, urging a child to wake up and go to school?

Such a ritual may soon be a relic from the past due to Gov. Gavin Newsom signing a bill on Sunday mandating that middle schools begin no earlier than 8:00 a.m. and high schools no earlier than 8:30 a.m.

Districts have three years to implement the later start times.  It is probably the only bill of the 70 he signed that I agree with.

Allowing children especially adolescents to sleep in matches their natural biological clocks.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has long supported later start times since teenagers tend to stay up later thus requiring more sleep in the morning; 8 to 10 hours of sleep per night is recommended.

Students attending school so early suffer from sleep deprivation interfering with their performance in school.

In a University of Washington study of students attending later start schools, researchers discovered an increase in student achievement.

Those opposed to this measure are concerned about its negative impact on students’ extracurriculars mainly sports since several games begin before or immediately after 3:00 p.m.  Depending on the sport, some kids already leave class after lunch in order to be at a game.  With a later start, those kids will miss even more school.   Such an obstacle can easily be resolved by starting the games later.

For parents, dropping off children later may interfere with their work schedules, meaning child care issues.  However, where I work, I often see students as early as 7:30 a.m. hanging out on campus; no big deal.

Starting school later would also benefit employees.  It is challenging for a teacher to be fully alert by 8:00 a.m. to work with 35 children.  For decades I have trained myself to rise no later than 5:30 a.m. just so I could perform my duties at an optimal level. I would prefer a 9:00 a.m. start so I could sleep in to 6:00 a.m. when there is more sunlight than darkness.  Plus, I would see more of my family before heading off to work.

In addition to starting school later, I would tweak school hours even further by extending the school day by an hour, from 9-5.  American students traditionally have less time in school than other industrialized countries.  An extra 180 hours of instruction over the course of a year could benefit them tremendously.  And, it might even decrease the amount of homework since some of it could be done within the extended school day with the assistance of the teacher right there for help.

My only concern about this new law is that Sacramento legislators felt compelled to mandate this statewide instead of allowing individual school districts to poll their principals, teachers and parents to make an informed decision.   That is why former Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed it last year.

This is just like the law Newsom signed last month dictating that local districts no longer suspend disruptive students even when they defy their own teachers.   The people in a community should retain control over that community without Big Brother imposing its will.

Still, parents should welcome this change.  With the recent release of middling state test scores in math and English, school children could use any little advantage to help them be more successful.

Leave a comment Posted on La Boheme, Los Angeles Opera

Teaching Opera with a Little Help from a Friend

Before this school year began, I planned experiences for my students outside the classroom walls that would expand their knowledge of literature, history and the arts.

First on that list was to see a production of Puccini’s La Boheme by the Los Angeles Opera company at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

For years, the education arm of L.A. Opera has funded programs for students to be introduced to the splendor of a live opera performance for free, quite a gift considering the best seats in the house go for over $300 a piece.

Back in the last 1990’s when I discovered this program, I would apply to it each year by submitting lesson plans and attending Saturday workshops in order to bring dozens of students to see a matinee performance.

Year after year, students and parents told me how much they enjoyed the experience, but year after year I became increasingly exhausted.

Without clerical support, I had to call the bus company myself to make all of the arrangements, collect enough money from students to pay not only for their transportation but to cover the cost of those who could not afford to pay, solicit parents to serve as chaperones, and fill out several school and district forms.

It also didn’t help that some teachers did not approve students going on the field trip.  One actually called me to ask if my students could miss my class the following day in order to make up for the lost hour due to the opera.

By the end of this century’s first decade, I decided I was done.

Until this year when I resurrected this event for my 10th graders.  After all, L.A. Opera was producing my favorite, La Boheme.

When I first taught opera, the L.A. Opera League would schedule guest speakers to visit each school participating in the program.

One of these speakers was Leslie Einstein.   She came armed with full-size posters of not just the opera but of history and literature.  Ms. Einstein wanted the students to be immersed in the time period, turning the classroom into a French café by passing out cups of apple juice and plates of home-baked madeleines.

She enjoyed interacting with my students so much that she proposed starting an after-school opera club.

Think about this.  A woman living in Pacific Palisades driving to a school in Glendale to fund an opera club where students learn about opera, then go see the actual performances.  In addition to the donated tickets, Ms. Einstein treated the students to a formal dinner beforehand.

So before I began my opera unit on La Boheme last month, as a shot in the dark, I contacted Ms. Einstein after 18 years.   Luckily, I found her phone number on a fax cover sheet dated from 2001 in a folder in the bottom drawer of a filing cabinet.

I didn’t know what to expect when I called, but after hearing her voicemail greeting, I knew she was doing well.

When we finally spoke over the phone a couple of days later, it was as if we had just recently talked to one another.  Amazing to think that the last time we spoke was before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.  How much in the world had changed since then, but not Ms. Einstein’s enthusiasm.

Not only did she agree to drive out to Hoover to be a guest speaker for my students, she was going to do two presentations as well as bring the apple juice and madeleines.

It was nice that so many of my students enjoyed studying opera and seeing La Boheme, and even more special that they had an opportunity to know Ms. Einstein.

Today’s world could use a few more kind souls like her whose charity brighten and enrich young people’s lives.