Twice a year we move our clocks forward, and then backward. Many adults, teens, tweens and sophisticated little people have their own opinions about...Daylight Saving Time. What do you think about this bi-annual event? Many people believe that America was the first country to practice daylight saving. Benjamin Franklin was of the opinion that people liked to live and work in daylight, so why not maximize that? Really, it was Germany that took up the practice in May 1916, this was done to save fuel during World War 1. Pretty soon America took up this idea and put the idea in practice to allow Americans more time for swimming, barbecuing, watching baseball and playing golf. A couple of states refuse to change their clocks. And some of the States have considered doing away with this twice a year tradition. As of today, 70 nations around the world still practice daylight saving, Japan and China are the only nations that refuse to take part. Everyone that held a position of importance in our government at this time thought that changing time would help the farmers, they would have more time to work in the fields, harvest more food and feed lots and lots MORE people. Well, that didn't happen, in fact, farmers lost light in the mornings and because the days became shorter in the winter, they had to milk cows in the dark and didn't have as much time to take their fruits, vegetables and grains to the market! The government believes that daylight saving time will save energy. For 5 months we would use less energy? Um, it's winter, dark and cold...that's when we use the most energy. More studies showed that longer days in the summer caused air conditioners to run longer...because it's hotter in the summer. So, long story short, daylight saving time has nothing to do with saving energy, we just use energy all year long! Back during WWII, President Roosevelt called it "War Time" and wanted the nation to conserve fuel and energy again. After the war New York decided to keep daylight saving time and continued to practice the tradition. Soon cities were saying, "If New York is practicing, we should be practicing too..." The farmers were saying, "Let's get back to work and cut this daylight saving time out!" Finally in 1966 President Lyndon Johnson declared if New York does it, we all do it! This kept everyone uniform and when driving to one city or town to the next you weren't driving through all these different time changes... A new study showed in 2015 that robberies increased when we turned the clock back. It appears that more darkness increases robberies. When we turn the clock forward in the spring and we have more light, and robberies decreased by 27%! So, what say you? Do you like daylight saving time? Or, do you hate it?
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Mrs. TaylorI love science! Everything about the world is interesting and never boring. I love to study plants, animals, insects, and people. My favorite subjects are my students who are the most unique organisms on the planet! Categories |