School schedules should be adjusted to the physiological needs of children that we now know thanks to chronobiology studies, says Daniel Gabaldón, a sociologist at the University of Valencia. In Spain, going to school "is torture", due to the difference in solar time and school times, the children are tired. They get up very early, eat at the wrong time and have to spend many hours at school. “It's child abuse”, considers Gabaldón, who is preparing a study on school times in Europe, with Kadri Täht (University of Tallinn, Estonia), where he is currently receiving a Requalifica scholarship from the Ministry of Universities.
He affirms that living in a time phase that is out of phase with respect to the sun harms us. Have we not adapted?
No, what we adapt to is the consequences of that caffeine-based lag. We experience a permanent jetlag one hour behind in winter and two in summer and that affects us, it forces us to wake up early with the alarm clock and we don't feel sleepy in the evening. 11 p.m. with current time is 9 p.m. in solar time. Send any teenager in Europe to bed at that time.
You have to wake up the children in the morning.
Yes, parents are forced to force our children out of bed when their body needs to sleep. What time do they naturally get up if they don't have to go to school? The deficit is greater in adolescents due to their circadian rhythm. In the new investigation of which we only have preliminary results, the Kairós project, we get a social jet lag of the 1st ESO students of about 3 hours.
He criticizes the continuous day, habitual in secondary and implanted in some primary ones.
Look, first we take them out in the middle of their break, we take them to school and there they receive 6 or 7 hours of classes in a row. All teachers want attention. Both the first and the last sessions, we know, are unproductive. Think that there are students who prefer not to drink water to be able to enjoy the patio and not queue for the bathroom.
What else does it imply?
Eat late. They spend, on average, more than 5 hours without eating, only with lunch and many in high school without having breakfast. There are no days like this in Europe, except Germany. If they stay in the afternoon, they eat at 12:30 p.m., but if not, between 2:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. They trick the stomach with a mid-morning snack. Little children fall asleep in the car on the way home to eat, already more sleepy than hungry.
How does it impact not sleeping and not eating when it's time?
Sleep expert neuroscientist Matthew Walker says the problem with not sleeping when you need to sleep is the loss of sleep phases important for memory consolidation. This can happen to children who get up very early and are at school at a time when they should be sleeping. It is that it is not only how many hours they sleep but when they sleep. And the teenager gets more sleep in the morning.
And eat late?
Research suggests that there is a greater tendency to generate fat and to choose caloric foods. There is evidence that eating late may be associated with overweight and obesity. A public health problem in which Spain is in the top positions in Europe.
During an intensive day they practice more sports.
It doesn't seem like it compensates what it means for them in terms of being overweight to eat late.
What should a more rational schedule look like?
Less hours a day in general, and for children, two or three hours of cognitive activity a day is enough. In Estonia, the country with the best score in PISA, as well as in other European countries, there is more flexibility. He does not have as many hours a day of class, there are more breaks and parents can drop their children off later in the morning.
The teaching hours are less than in Spain, partly because their curriculum is less overloaded, partly because they are spread out more throughout the year because they have fewer summer holidays.
They start in infants with 2 or 3 hours of guided activities and then take a nap until they are 6 years old and play activities or free play. In infants there are two teachers per classroom to guarantee a 12-hour coverage, which no child does but which adjusts to the needs of families who need to take them at 8:00 and pick them up at 15:00 and those who can take them to the 9:30 and pick them up at 18:00.
In primary school, students start with just three teaching hours a day and a free meal, and the school remains open after classes. Each primary course increases the teaching hours progressively (in ninth, our 4th of ESO, they have only 25.5 teaching hours per week) and they continue to offer activities that here are called "long day" our extracurricular activities, in many cases free and taught by the teachers themselves. center teachers.
And in ESO?
5 hours is enough. And I think that teenagers should come in later, around 11 or 12, have one or two classes, maybe physical education, stop for lunch and continue in the afternoon. They would be more rested and be more productive.
And what do families do with conciliation? And the teachers?
Schedules should be designed around the needs of children, not adults. In any case, if we want them to be in the center, there are other types of non-school activities that it can offer. Regarding teachers, they have more time to prepare classes. But I recognize that such a change would imply anticipating conflicts and agreeing on measures, but without displacing the interests of minors.
