Time for Lunch!...at 9:30am?

[Greenday]

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/...chocolate-milk

Saw this on Fox today. Multiple schools in Florida start serving lunch around 9-9:30am. This makes little sense to me. Feed them lunch at a time appropriate for lunch. If you are going to force them to be to school so early, feed them breakfast. I mean "Okay, I just ate lunch at 9:30am! Now I have to wait seven, eight, nine hours for dinner!" just doesn't sound right.

Also, why are schools starting so insanely early? Most kids will not have jobs that start that early. And most teenagers, because of biological reasons, do not function nearly as well at 7:15 in the morning as they do at noon. The changes going through an adolescent's body cause this.

[Andara Bledin]

What the hell happened to morning break?

I started school at 7am because I had a zero period class. The rest of the school started at 8, which is the norm in my area. There would be two class periods, a 10-ish break for kids to have a quick snack, two more class periods, then lunch for the entire school around 12:30, then the final two class periods, making for about 7 hours of schooling with about 1 hour of non-school scheduled time.

This was the basic template for every school I attended, from grade school on up.

And even if they do start school at 6am, why would they have lunch before 10? Kids can't manage to hold their hunger for a full 4 hours after waking, but are expected to manage to wait another 4 or 5 more before they can leave for the day? That's just all sorts of screwed up and I imagine it makes the day take that much longer when the one thing that breaks it up happens well before the halfway mark.

^-.-^

[Greenday]

What the hell happened to morning break?

...Morning break? I graduated high school in 2006 and we had no such thing. In high school, class started at 7:40am. Lunch either began at 10:53am and ended at 11:23am or it began at 11:50am and ended 12:20pm. School ended at 2:35pm (Unless you were a senior and had 10th period study hall in which you could leave around 1:45ish). That's much better than 9:30am but still. Saying that kids have to be fed super early because they might not eat breakfast is stupid because then they have to wait a super long time until dinner.

[AdminAssistant]

I can't remember exact times, but I think this was the breakdown in elementary school.

Breakfast was served ~7:20. It was completely optional for most kids, but it was free to kids in the free lunch program. It wasn't fancy...a bowl of cereal or oatmeal, some fruit, and milk. Maybe generic poptarts. (I went to school from 1988-2001, before they gave a good hot damn about healthy food.) Assembly started at 7:45, then we went to class at 8:00. Lunch was sometime in the 11:00 hour and went in three shifts. First, Kindergarten-3rd grade, then 4th-6th grade, and then Jr. High/High School kids, depending on the campus. School was finished by 3:00. We also had three recesses in lower elementary (morning, noon, afternoon) and two in upper elementary (morning, noon). Junior High/High School had no such breaks with the exception of Study Hall.

Of course, with NCLB and such, I have no idea how it's structured there now. I am 100% certain that the cafeteria food is no longer as good as it used to be. (Seriously, we had great cafeteria food. I'd go to extreme measures to have one of those rolls we used to get on Thursdays.)

[HYHYBT]

Sometimes it happens even with more normal start times. I don't know the exact times, but the high school my brothers went to had grown much more than it was designed for, and so had to run more lunch periods. The first one started way too early, the last one was too late, and they were all short enough that the last people through barely had time to sit down before lunch was over.

I wonder if the extra-early start time has to do with bussing? The school system I was in from 7th grade up had half as many busses as it did routes, so everyone who rode the bus had most of an hour before school (if on a first run) or after (if on a second.) That was a small system; one elementary school, one middle school, and one high school, all next door to each other and everyone riding the same bus. But a larger system in a similar situation might well run the routes for one school first, and go ahead and start the school day there while the busses went out again for those attending another.

[Gravekeeper]

In my high school, classes started at 8:30. There was a morning break at 9:30. Then a lunch break at 12. Then classes were out at 3:30.

[fireheart17]

In my high school, classes started at 8:30. There was a morning break at 9:30. Then a lunch break at 12. Then classes were out at 3:30.

Our was slightly similar. School started at 8:45-8:50. We had morning break around 10:40-10:50 which went until 11-11:15, then lunch at usually 12:40/12:50-1:20/1:30 or so (Numbers varied on schools)

We got out around 3:15.

[Racket_Man]

when I was in HS at a large urban HS 35 years ago we had the normal school day which started at 7:50am (homeroom with the first class starting at 8am). we did have a "A" hour before this for certain classes (such as the two high choirs which I was in or a few AP classes) that started at 7am

Lunch was in three shifts
1st lunch was: go to lunch from 11:30 - noon then class from noon to 1om
2d lunch was: go to class from 11:30 to noon then lunch from noon to 12:30pm then class from 12:30 to 1pm
3d lunch was: go to class from 11:30 to 12:30 then lunch from 12:30 to 1PM

the day ended around 3:10 - 3:15PM

so the school day at some schools start as early as 7 am SO WHAT???? eat some decent breakfast and that should hold until 11 or so during normal lunch time.

[IDrinkaRum]

My daughter is in elementary school. She gets picked up around 8:30 and is deposited at school before it starts at 9:00 AM. Her lunch period is at 12:35. She gets a snack break at 10:30 during math time. (I usually either send her in with a banana or a fruit snack). Then she has her lunch at her allotted time. She gets home almost at 4 PM, and I have a snack ready for her (usually turkey pepperoni and string cheese and a juice box).

I think lunch at 9:30 AM is a little ridiculous.

[Salesmonkey]

9:30am is not lunch. 9:30 is second breakfast.
But as a devotee of the 3 martini lunch, I'm down with this.

[Panacea]

It might have something to do with busing. My school system staggered school schedules to save money on busing, which ended up with some freaky school hours.

Or it might have to do with large student bodies and small spaces. I didn't read the article.

But it is messed up, it's not how our bodies operate and it will affect learning because it will screw up how the insulin pump works (kids will start having sugar highs and lows from eating too early). Will probably lead to behavioral issues too, as hungry kids are cranky kids.

[BrenDAnn]

My school started and ended at odd times...Like 8:34 and 3:24. Lunch was in two or three shifts, starting at around 11 or so. At 9:30 AM I would've been in class! That is NOT lunch time!

[Hyena Dandy]

There's this really disturbing trend I've noticed. We try to pack all this information and time into our kid's learning that we forget... Just about everything else. We forget that there's more to school than the time spent in a classroom. Schools need to provide a learning environment that helps the students learn, not try to run them ragged. They may spend more time in class rooms, but they'll be learning les if they're too hungry to concentrate.

[Gravekeeper]

Too hungry and too tired. As was already mentioned, studies have proven that kids from a purely biological standpoint do not learn well first thing in the morning. I mean I remember in high school just absolutely fighting to stay awake through my first class several times a week. I'd bite my knuckles, stab myself in the hand with my pen, anything to just stay concious. I certainly didn't learn jack or shit that early as those classes were a total blur.

The best days were when I had a free period first thing so class didn't start for another hour for me. By then I was coherent. ;p

[SongsOfDragons]

O.o Whut?

I agree with the idea that adolescents' brains do not engage until much later in the morning. There's a school in England somewhere...my recollection is comint up with Manchester but I don't know if this school is anywhere near there...that at least trialed the idea of starting Year 8s and above IIRC at 10 am. Marks skyrocketed.