Again With Seminary Start Times

Last year, Angela wrote an important post about the problems with seminary starting so early.

I was reminded of her post because (a) my kids started school today, and (b) I read this article on teenagers, early start times, and sleep deprivation yesterday.

FWIW, the article doesn’t say anything new that Angela didn’t already bring up. But largely, schools are ignoring the more-irrefutable-by-the-day research and keeping the same early start times they’ve had since time immemorial (or, at least, since the 90s when I was in high school). And, as far as I know, nothing has changed with the church’s early-morning seminary program, either.

Angela wrote her post out of experience; I write mine out of hope. Because my oldest is still a couple years away from high school, and I hope the local high school (start time: 7:55 am, which is 35 minutes earlier than the AAP recommends) and the church (which has local seminary at some time earlier than that, I assume) can move to best practices before she hits high school.

In Favor of the Status Quo

The author of the Slate article mentioned some of the pushback she got previously when she raised the issue of too-early start times. And I imagine there will be some pushback here, too. I’m going to try to anticipate and refute a couple of the objections:

(1) I did it when I was a kid; these kids should be able to, too. I did early morning seminary in high school, too. 6:00 a.m. at the church, then we drove to school. And I survived. But the thing is, I hope we do things for reasons other than just inertia. When I was a kid, I didn’t hear any conversations about teenagers’ different circadian rhythms and stuff. Now that we know that teenagers need more—and later—sleep, we ought to adjust their schedules in line with that, to the extent practicable.

See, seminary’s not supposed to be a hazing thing. It’s not supposed to be an artificial trial intended to be a gatekeeper to true belonging. According to the church, the purpose of seminary is

to help students understand and rely upon the teachings and Atonement of Jesus Christ, qualify for the blessings of the temple, and prepare themselves, their families, and others for eternal life with their Father in Heaven.

That is, seminary isn’t meant as a trial, or a gatekeeper, or even a marker of identity. It’s meant to help our teenagers better understand and use the Atonement. And for that, sleep deprivation seems like an impediment, not a help.

(2) God can give them energy. I have no doubt that’s true. But I also have very little doubt that He won’t. I mean, if He created us with circadian rhythms, why would He want to shift them just for scheduling convenience? It seems more likely to me that we ought to use our reason and inspiration to create a schedule that meets the bodies He’s given us.

(3) Sacrifice brings blessings. A couple thoughts on this. First, sure, why not? But you know what? Seminary requires sacrifice whether it happens at 6:00 am or at 8:00 pm. Either way, the kids are giving up something else that they could be doing at that time. So changing the start time of seminary doesn’t remove the sacrifice it entails.

But also, the sacrifice of getting up too early and being sleep-deprived has no correlation to the specific blessings that seminary is meant to provide (i.e., increased knowledge of and experience with the Atonement). I mean, if we’re into sacrifice for the sake of sacrifice itself, why not sacrifice, I don’t know, pizza? I mean, giving up pizza would represent a real sacrifice to me, and, while I could be wrong, I’m not aware of anybody saying that the sacrifice of giving up pizza will cause me to be able to better understand and experience the Atonement. (And if anybody does say that, that person is wrong.) I don’t see any causal connection between sleep deprivation and spiritual maturity.

Real Benefits

The benefits of letting our adolescents get the sleep they need doesn’t accrue just to them. The RAND Corporation just released a fascinating report that tries to quantify the economic benefits of later school start times. It estimates that, based on those two things, moving school start times to 8:30 could contribute $83 billion to the economy over the next ten years.

And it bases that increase on two factors: reduced car accidents and increased academic performance. Why reduced accidents? Well, about one-fifth of fatal car crashes involving kids between the ages of 16 and 18 involve a sleep-deprived driver, and car crashes among that cohort decrease significantly by delaying school start times by an hour.

And the later start time would increase the percentage of students who graduate from high school and go to college, increasing their potential lifetime earnings. (Note that RAND doesn’t look at other possible benefits, such as improved mental health.)

Although RAND was looking specifically at school start times, it’s worth noting that the super-early seminary start times are going to present the same negative effects, and making them later will have the same positive repercussions, as delaying school start times. Frankly, there is no compelling argument (other than scheduling simplicity) for early start times for seminary, but there are tremendously compelling arguments for later starts.

How Do We Solve the Problem?

Of course, complaining about early-morning seminary is different from—and easier than—coming up with a solution. After all, there’s not an answer that automatically works for everybody. Swimmers practice in the morning. Rock climbers practice in the afternoon. Actors may have intense schedules for a couple months, and then free time in other months.

Fortunately, Angela offered a couple potential solutions. I’d like to offer a variation on hers.

See, the online option is good in several way. But there are a couple problems. One is, I think the social aspect of seminary is an essential part of students’ learning. After all, if we’re trying to build a Zion society, it’s not about the solitary study of scriptures. It’s about interacting with, and loving, people who may not be much like us—there’s a communal part of the gospel.

Another is, the online instruction needs to be asynchronous. That is, kids need to be able to go to their computers for instruction at their convenience.

So what to do? Well, this semester, I’m teaching in Loyola’s part-time program. And it’s a joint online-in person program–the students meet every other weekend for classes, and do the rest online.

And there’s no reason that seminary couldn’t be run on the same model. With asynchronous instruction, plus in-person meeting at regular intervals,[fn1] students could benefit from sleep, flexibility, and in-person meetings.

[fn1] When? I don’t know. Maybe once a week in the morning; maybe Sundays after church. Maybe some other time.