It's not just american schools. All schools resemble prisons because all school systems around the world essentially adopted the american model which borrowed heavily from the prussian model.
All schools were compulsory indoctrination centers which buttressed the burgeoning nation-states.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussian_education_system
Modern education system, along with national media, government, etc are pillars of the nation-state. You can't have a nation-state without one nowadays.
Some/all of that have less to do with war and more to do with general disaster preparedness.
* Bomb shelters provide shelter from...bombs, yeah
* Windowless hallways provide shelter from tornadoes (no glass to break/become shrapnel)
* The heavy metal doors are firewalls that automatically close when the alarm goes off (most are hollow, won't do shit against assault weapons and predate even Columbine)
I suppose you could put windows between the classrooms and hallways, but those have their own associated problems to overcome: increased noise, more windows for students to break, safety in emergency situations, etc.
As for non-connected classrooms, where you need to walk outside to go between rooms, I've always thought that was to solve the same problems. Cheaper to build/renovate/modify/expand, easier to clean, less noise and fewer students running into each other.
It definitely felt like we were trapped in there and held against our will.
Now I am curious how schools in scandanavia are, given their famous prisons.
But that's the same part of me talking that wishes everyone was "forced" to work a retail or food service job for a year or two of their life. Probably impossible to actually do and enforce here, but would definitely make people overall be nicer and more considerate of others (and in the case of cleaning schools, more likely to clean up after themselves).
That's pretty frustrating to read. I was sleep deprived enough to sleep 15 hours a day on the weekends during high school, but actually going to bed before midnight still just resulted in staring at a dark ceiling for an hour.
Sleep hygiene is important, but at a certain point the circadian rhythm will put its foot down.
I also suspect that starting at 11 AM-1 PM and going until 4-5 PM, despite being less overall time, would produce vastly better academic outcomes in high school just due to the average teenage circadian rhythm and the resulting zombification of current students. The noneducational duties of high school could be handled by letting students show up earlier as needed with breakfast/lunch provided- the structured classes would just start later.
Maybe give the early arrivers a place to take a nap while we're at it.
I totally agree that if we focused on getting kids a reasonable amount of sleep and a healthy meal or two (and hydrated!), we’d likely be able to have much better outcomes.
I was taking prescribed sleeping pills because I couldn't fall asleep and had anxiety attacks late at night if I forced it. My school started at 6 am so I got up at 5 am. It got pretty bad at some point.
My dad and grandfather both have problem sleeping early but I am worse.
My SO was a teacher for a few years too. Despite Free and Reduced Lunch (FRL) being offered and encouraged, many kids' parents still could not be bothered to sign their kids up until late in the year. My SO kept food in the drawers of the desk for these kids. In addition, FRL did not cover the weekends, so many kids would come in on Monday having not eaten for that weekend. Though not common, it was again chronic with these kids.
Food scarcity in the US is still very much a 'thing', unfortunately.
I was and am a vegetarian, and maybe in wealthy districts they have better lunch options, but certainly not in mine. The fact that we largely tie school funding to property taxes is a huge problem. Regardless, let’s not pretend that school lunch, at least in the 90s, was actually healthy or good or even at a reasonable time for lunch.
Ref: https://www.lakeplacid.com/story/2016/02/olympic-prison-stor...
I think it all comes down to how students are seen by architects and the school system in general. I wonder if private schools are different.