Vanguard’s Early Morning Jog

The early morning hustle and bustle has gotten a little bit earlier this year at Vanguard. Last year, students were to be at school in their “team” (their selected morning group of students and a staff member) promptly at 8:30 in the morning. Although it was torture for most students to wake up before dinner, 8:30 AM was reasonable compared to the other district school mornings, which generally started at 7:30.

As well as starting school at 8:30 last year, physical education (more commonly known as gym) was only once a week on Fridays. Depending on weather students had morning or afternoon service decided what time during the day they had gym on Friday. If a student had morning service, he/she would have gym for one hour at either 9 AM or 10 AM. If a student had afternoon service, he/she would have gym (also for an hour) either at 12 PM or 1 PM. “Vanguard had a big break on physical ed. compared to other district schools who generally have gym every school day for 50 minutes, or in my case, Rolling Meadows High School had gym every other day for 90 minutes,” said Chris Pehm, a new Vanguard student.

Speeding up to this 2009-2010 school year, Vanguard has made some changes. No, 7:30 is not our start, (thank God, praise Allah, hail Satan, whatever floats your boat) but we are thirty minutes ahead of schedule. 8:00 AM is now the start of our day, and instead of team time being thirty minutes (8:30-9:00) it has been cut by about 60% to only ten minutes every morning (8:00-8:10). “More than anything, I miss the team time, it’s only ten minutes…so much for the bonding time,” says Rachel Conroy, a current Vanguard student.

So who decided to make these changes? It’s a combination of course, between the school and the state of Illinois. Up until this year, Vanguard had what was called a P.E. (physical education) Waiver. This allowed Vanguard to have gym only once a week as opposed to the normal state requirement of a daily physical education class (with exceptions to certain schools with block scheduling, etc.). Because the state has decided to revoke the waiver, Vanguard was forced to fit in a P.E. class everyday that school is in session. But having team from 8:30- 9:00 and classes beginning right after that, where could Vanguard fit in a gym everyday? That’s just it, the problem was obvious and fitting an extra class in just wasn’t going to happen between changing service hours, lunchtime, and class reductions. So what was school director Mike O’Brien to do? There was really only two options, let the students out later in the afternoon, or make the students come in earlier in the morning.

The verdict was in and Mr. O’Brien chose, you guessed it, start school earlier. “Vanguard made the decision to start school earlier not only to fit P.E. into the schedule, but because research has shown that exercise in the morning helps students wake up and pay better attention in class/service” said Mike O’Brien, School Director at Vanguard. “It’s just not necessary, I am more tired in the morning and running around isn’t helping,” says the frustrated Maxine Reed, a Vanguard student. The decision has been made and, as stated before, school starts a half an hour earlier every day. Gym is now a daily activity instead of a T.G.I.F. occasion, but what are the opinions of students?


“It’s ridiculous!” says a Vanguard student, Angel Colon, “I don’t mind the gym everyday, but it’s just to early for us teens to wake up.” Of all the students questioned about this change at Vanguard, most of the statements were similar to Angel’s. Of those i asked they felt that the gym requirement is fine, in fact, many students even stated that the gym time was enjoyable and refreshing, but that waking up even earlier than last year is horrible. That is unless you’re Brian Thompson, another Vanguard student who simply stated, “It’s whatever…I don’t really mind either change.” Hearing that was a change of pace compared to the usual, whining about waking up earlier. “Since the change, attendance rates are better, whether or not they’re related is not known, but it’s a good thing,” says school resource officer, Rick Sjodin.

So is it a great change? I’d say no…but is it all that bad, not really. Complaining does nothing, and personally, I’d much rather wake up 30 minutes earlier, than get out of school 30 minutes later. And I’d like to close my article before I’m interrupted by a famous rapper or politician, but bottom line, Vanguard Vipers are waking up earlier and getting their exercise. Is it right? It’s up to you.


Lindsey Ackermann
Reporter
Vanguard Blog