American schools are known for having super early start times! The earliest I’ve heard of from an American friend was 06:50. Can anyone beat that?

47 comments

  2. I feel like my high school started at 6:45? But I don’t remember, it was so long ago, I graduated in 2005 lol. More than half a lifetime ago!

  3. Damn that must be an awful place.

    The earliest for me was 7:30, but I usually got there at 7.

  4. My high school started at 7:20, but because I was doing extracurricular activities I usually had to be there at 6:00. Non-sport activities usually met before school because all of the sports practices were after school and there were people who wanted to do both.

  5. My high school started at 8:00 and that was already almost too early for high school brains. I can’t fathom why a school district would want to start so early.

  6. 6:50 is really early wtf. My high school started at 7:40 and it felt way too early.

  8. High school started at 7:05. This was in the south, and I believe it was a holdover from the pre air conditioning days when it would just get too unbearably hot to be stuck inside a class room later in the day. By starting so early they could get out before the hottest time of the day.

  11. My school(high school) starts at 8:36. But that is extremely late because most of us have 20-40 minute bus rides to school

  12. My High School started at 07:25. Looking back as an adult now I realize that was insanely early. I woke up at 6 everyday and didn’t get home until almost 4.

  13. I don’t know if I’ve ever heard of one that started before 7:00 but it’s also not something I spend much time keeping track of. First bell at my high school was at 7:17, Central Maryland in the early 2000s.

  14. When I started teaching we started school at 7:25. Most schools have moved to later start times as research has given real data to indicate the benefits.

    I will also add that climate and where you are in the time zone matter. Here in Massachusetts high schools need to start earlier enough for outdoor after school activities to happen before it gets dark. This wasn’t a concern for my in-laws that grew up in Ohio and think we start school exceedingly early.

  15. We started at 7:30.

    Sometimes for sports we’d have workouts before school that started at 6:00 or 6:30. I don’t miss those days, but I do miss my friends.

  16. My middle school was a 7:45-3:45, HS was 730-3 if you didn’t have extracurricular activities, my senior year I started late because I didn’t have a first period lol

  18. Mine was 7:35 but that was if you took the optional 0 period. If you didn’t, then classes started, I guess, 55 minutes after that. If you didn’t take 0 period, you had to be there a little before classes started for home room.

  19. I’ve never heard of a school that started at 6:50. Mine started at 7:15.

  20. I’ve heard of a few schools that did 7am, 6:50 sounds like hell even though it’s only 10 minuets earlier

  21. I started high school at 7:50, my parents started at 7. From what I understand, there is a trend toward later start times.

  22. My elementary school started at 7:45, middle school at 8, and high school at 9

  26. 1st Period started at 8am for me, but there was a 0 Period option that started at 7.

    Not surprisingly, I never took a 0 Period class.

  27. Oho, I do have that beat: my high school started at 6:40. But it was a half-day magnet school for students from multiple schools/districts in the area, meaning we had to start early enough that we could all get to our home schools in time for the second half of each day.

    Starting school at 6:40 was as awful as it sounds…

  28. Wow, this thread is eye opening for me. We started at 8:25 and that seemed plenty early for me. I can’t imagine starting at 7 something.

  30. Mine was 7AM because my school was over-capacity so they had to stagger the school day. Freshmen year was 10AM-4PM, the rest of the years was 7AM-3PM, and then as we completed our graduation requirements, 7AM-2PM or even 1PM

  31. My high school started at 8, but we had an optional “zero period” that started at 7. However, sometimes students in certain clubs could arrive for some activities (such as dance practice) as early as 6:30 in some cases.

  32. Ours was on the late side at 8:55. But it was a performing arts school so they were probably getting us ready for late nights. Plus almost everyone was in rehearsals or after school classes til 8 or 9 every night.

  34. Our homeroom in high school was 7:05-7:15. It was just so teachers could take attendance and verify certain papers were handed out, while the morning announcements were read.

    6:50 doesn’t surprise me. I would have loved to start earlier, towards the end of the year when it was hot as seven fiery hells in the classrooms.

  35. Not an American but I have a further question to add to this one… if your school day started at 7am, what time would it finish?

  36. 7:20 but that was over a decade ago and the district has since pushed the start for HS to 8:30-9.

    Earlier start time worked out well for me in college since I seemed to have an 8 AM class every semester. Also my work stating time now…I can’t naturally sleep past 8:30 am anymore.

  37. 8:00 for me, here now I think it’s 9:00 for elementary but 7:30 for middle school. I was in advanced math and had to leave because they made me start at 7 and I could not handle that in middle school, a morning person I’ve never been.

  38. I think doors opened around 6:50 in my high school for kids that got there early and wanted to get breakfast, but home room didn’t officially start until I think 7:20.

  39. I think my sophomore year of high school, we started at 6:50. I don’t think I’ve heard of an earlier start time than that before. We only used that for the one year before going to either 7:10 or 7:20 the following year

  40. My high school started at 7:15 but it was a 1 hr bus ride away, so the bus picked me up at 6. Don’t know if that counts.

  41. We had to be at school by 6:30 for homeroom and classes started at 6:45. In Northwestern NJ.

  43. Elementary was 8:25 we had to be in the classroom and getting ready. Class started at 8:30.

    Highschool was also at 8:30 start. Some teachers want us in early some would keep the door locked as they tried to get rid of the hangover.

  44. When I lived in NC, my son’s high school started at 6:45. Middle school started at 7:45, and elementary started at 8:45. They claimed it was so the older kids could watch the younger kids when parents were working after school (each school got out an hour later as well), but I’ll be damned if that wasn’t a nightmarish year for me related to carpool (I had a kindergartener, a sixth grader, and a ninth grader). Six hours each day; I “worked from home” in my car.

  45. I remember some of my friends starting school at 07:00 and getting there as early as 06:30.

  46. I had a teacher yell at us for yawning. His class started at 7:05. We were 15.

  47. I’m in high school and it’s 8:15 – 2:47 for me. ALSO THE SCHEDULE IS DIFFERENT EVERY DAY AND LUNCH IS 1 HOUR SO ITS SUPER WEIRD. but the earliest I’ve heard was 8:00

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