The U.S. Senate has just voted to permanently move the sun to a later rise by endorsing continuous daylight saving time. The biological understanding of children and the science of sleep strongly demand concomitantly pushing forward the school hour. Starting classes later, an hour or two, should be part of any mandate for better student participation, attendance and learning.
Our problem residing on the western slope of the Rockies is we are blind to the actual first light of day as recorded at the horizon. Dirt and looming rocks with towering pinnacles get in our way. The delayed sunrise pushes us the equivalent of hundreds of miles northward. Due to the later arrival of the sun’s rays of photons needed to reset our wandering circadian rhythms, many of us may be at risk for seasonal affect disorder or winter blues like communal jet lag.
Improving our children’s education doesn’t require lawmakers to be prophets or have faith, only common sense. The testaments say Joshua halted the sun in its path, and faith moves mountains. They have played Joshua by the chronological delay of the sun’s arrival. So, unless our representatives also mandate the everlasting hills out of the way by faith or fiat, they need to exercise simple, mere mortal, wise judgment and postpone classes by two hours so teaching can start on time.
Joseph Grant Cramer, Murray
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