So many people have an opinion about how bad Daylight Savings Time is or how good it is. Neither is really true. The number of hours of daylight changes constantly, getting longer until mid-summer and shorter until mid-winter. Humans can’t change that.
We can, however, stop putting our kids out on the curb at quarter til dark in the morning and working until we must turn headlights on after work to go home.
Instead of shifting the hour hand on all our clocks twice a year, let’s just get up later in winter and come home earlier to avoid waiting at the school busstop and driving in the dark.
Why not let businesses open when it’s light out and close when dark, or getting there. No more commuting when headlights are blinding you in the morning or evening. No more dropping off Sally or Jason at the bus stop when it’s pitch black. School can start later and still be 6 hours, and work can start later and still get the same amount of work done. (We are incredibly flexible and indolent most of the day.)
But in summer, when more hour of daylight are available, let’s get up with the sun and come home before it’s dark. I won’t propose a schedule of when school and work hours are trimmed and whether it’s from the start of the day or the end, because people will endlessly argue over which is better, but you get the idea.
Maybe in winter we’re getting up at 8 am to work, literally, at 9 am, but we come home around 4 or so. Yes, I know far north states are more severely affected by the angle to the sun. So, maybe in Florida 8-4 and in upstate NY it’s 9-3. Let the states work it out.
It is a good reminder twice a year to check the batteries in clocks and smoke detectors at the same time we set clocks forward and back. But let’s not be foolish. We can remind ourselves in other ways.