Late High School Start Urged (TVDSB)

Seeing as I don’t have my children in the public school system, I really shouldn’t even be writing about what I read in the London Free Press this week. Apparently the Thames Valley District School board is considering delaying start times for high school aged children. Teenagers are tired in the mornings and it’s difficult to get them up in time for school.

I was very glad to see that the article addressed people who might label teenagers as being lazy. They might have been thinking of me. Again, not that it’s my concern as a parent. I really don’t care if other people have a hard time getting up their teenager for school. I’m not sure if this is a news flash, but getting up for school never has been easy. I slept through many of my own high school classes. (And several university classes as well.)

I don’t know about you, but as I walk through life, I have found that many of the things that I need to do are difficult. Getting up in the morning is still difficult for me. In fact, I slept in just this morning. There are many tasks in the workplace which aren’t all that glorious; tasks such as washing the toilet bowl and cleaning the gutter. They are tasks which nobody likes to do, but they need to be done.

Perhaps it is the trade that I work in, but we find very few individuals who are willing to do these ‘less worthy’ tasks. I believe that high school students would get better grades if they could sleep in longer. I don’t doubt that. What lessons are we are handing down with respect to work ethic? I’m not saying that my generation has an outstanding work ethic either. This is not a, 'kids these days' rant. I’m just saying, that if getting up when you are tired is too much of a burden, how will you handle the pressures of life in the real world? What if you end up having to do shift work someday? Are you going to tell Toyota to delay your start time? For those of you are living in the work force, did life get easier after you left high school?

I don’t care when other people’s children start school, but if they don’t have the internal resolve to get up for 8:00am classes, please make sure that kind of information is clearly placed on the individual’s resume.