Morning Wake Up Calls From Schools = Brilliant

on May 26, 2011 at 4:45 PM

phone Quick. What's the worst part of getting your kids off to school in the morning? Did you say getting them UP so you can actually get them out the door? Introducing the idea so brilliant I wish I'd thought of it myself: morning wake-up calls for teenagers FROM their school.

See? Genius! A new practice that's popping up at schools across the country, it's pretty easy to achieve. Just like the automated calls you already get when the school is doing something big (I just got one to remind my kid school is IN session on what WOULD have been a holiday if we hadn't had so many snow days), they don't take any manpower. It's all automated.

Again, I say brilliant. Because teenagers have it rough. They have HOURS of homework and rarely get the amount of sleep they really need because of it. Chemically wired to stay up late, their bodies are begging them to sleep in the next morning. And then there's school, which studies have proven starts too darn early. Put them all together, and it's near impossible to get the kids up in the morning without getting your head snapped off before you, yourself, have had a chance to have the caffeine necessary to help you keep your cool.

But here's the thing, parents, we aren't the reason mornings are such a bear. The school is. They pile on the homework. They make the kids show up at the crack of dawn ... and then leave it to us to get them up. In a perfect world, we'd be able to send the kids to bed when we think they're ready, not after they finish three term papers and a science report!

If the schools are going to turn our kids into zombies in the morning, the least they can do is help us wake our living dead.

What do you say? Best idea ever? Will your school do it?

Image via tjscenes/Flickr

About the author Jeanne Sager

writes articles for The Stir by day, slays closet monsters and bounds through bedtime stories with her elementary schooler by night. Diet Pepsi courses through her veins. The Phineas and Ferb soundtrack reverberates through her brain.

Filed Under: school

Comments (36)

Jespren

on May 26, 2011 at 5:08 PM

So wait, not only is a teenager not responsible enough to get up in the morning but the parents *also* aren't responsible enough to get them up! Schools are to educate, not to parent, that's your job! And any teenager that's been properly parented is darn well able to get up on his/her own for school in the morning. High school is supposed to be preparing them for real life, you know, time management skills, work ethic, self sufficiency. Or do you figure a student can arrange for their summer job/permanent job to call and wake them up? It's nothing but a bald faced lie that kids can't get enough sleep. It's just that they can't spend hours every day socializing with friends AND do classwork AND get enough sleep. Somethings gotcha give, a student dedicated to learning and growing towards adulthood it's constant socialization that gives, not school work or sleep.

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Nonmember comment from lisa

Not a bad debut even better(and happening where I live) high school doesn't start till 9:40(for the public schools. The charter school my kids attend still start at 8:00.) I wish they did this when I went to school!!

mesai

on May 26, 2011 at 6:31 PM

I think it's a good idea, but only for those students who are chronically late or absent, and only so that the school can say, "Hey, we tried to help you out with this" when the parents complain that their kid is failing because they aren't taking the responsibility to get their kids up and out of bed.

rainbowcool19

on May 26, 2011 at 7:07 PM

A school is for learning, they shouldn't be responsible for waking your child up in the morning.

Give your child an alarm clock and some responisbility.

However, I do agree that it is a good idea to give" wake up calls" to students who are continuously late.

Nonmember comment from ZoesMom

on May 26, 2011 at 8:53 PM

On Long Island where I grew up high school STARTED at 6:45am. Which meant be on the bus around 6:15... which meant get up around 5am, when you're 14 years old. My Mom couldn't be caught dead waking up that early to help out. And sleep is a pretty alluring thing to a barely teenager at 5am!!! Hell yeah I would have LOVED a wake-up call.

GlowWorm889

on May 26, 2011 at 9:40 PM

I would have loved this in college on the occassions when my has-a-mind-of-its-own alarm clock decided my 8 am class was just not worth waking me up for. :P

JAFE

on May 27, 2011 at 10:01 AM

I suppose we could just raise taxes to pay for this. Or, would it be "free?" Maybe then we can send a maid over to make the bed.

Surely you can't be serious? Teenagers have it tough? Too much homework and too much stress? Getting up at the crack of dawn? Blah, blah, blah. Didn't we go through this as teens? I had to get myself up and to school on my own. If it's too hard to get your kids up and to school then maybe you shouldn't have had any. This has got to be the biggest waste of tax money than I've ever heard of.

OR, is this sarcasm and I missed it?

Nonmember comment from Doll

on May 27, 2011 at 11:15 AM

This is ridiculous. It's school, not a hotel. Why should the school be responsible for waking kids up? I was responsible for waking myself up starting in junior high school. I never once missed the bus. If the kids are not responsible, then the parents should be.

on May 27, 2011 at 4:00 PM

Most schools already have an automated mass-message machine these days anyway. Teens (or parents) should be able to elect for this service if the school wants to offer it, specially to chronic 'over-sleepers'. What's the harm? Adults in the 'real world' can also pay for wake up calls every morning. Different strokes for different folks people!

Nonmember comment from Jaimie

on May 28, 2011 at 4:04 PM

This is stupid. I graduated in '08 with perfectly fine grades and still managed to get to bed at a decent time so I could wake up early. Was it easy? No. Is it easy to get up early now? No. But I do it. It's part of being RESPONSIBLE. And as for the homework thing....kids do NOT get as much homework as the media makes it seem. If kids would do their homework when they had time to in school (study hall, in class work times) they wouldn't have to spend hours doing it at home.