Change Start Time Essay

Schools all around the nation have starting times for school, that are too early for the students and teachers alike. Schools starting times should be 8:30 in the morning or later, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Sleep loss has become more common in children due to early start times which only gives them 6-7 hours of sleep a night when growing children should have 8-9 hours a night. children suffer the chronic loss of sleep due to the hormonal roller coaster that you call puberty, which only lets them begin to go into a REM sleep around 10 p.m. . It’s also been proven that adolescent children suffer from highers risks of physical health problems, mental health problems, lower test scores, missing school, substance abuse, and being in a car crash due to sleep deprivation. Students end up having to get up before 6:30 to get ready and catch the bus or walk to school, but when you have to study for hours after school, eat, clean up, participate in extracurricular activities, including sports and clubs, and do chores in less than 4 hours to get the sleep they require to be healthy mentally and physically it’s almost impossible. School should start later to better our future generations, with more sleep we could have more positive members of societies.

Despite the overwhelming evidence given by current research, many people refuse to change school start times because of the lack of noticeable impact some schools had or the impact it had on some people’s schedules. Pannoni cites a statement by the Iowa City Community School District which found that “the later start time . . . [did] not reduce the number of tardy students by any appreciable amount.” The principal of Ballard High School agreed by saying that he “would be surprised to see large improvements in either attendance or grade data compared with past years” (Pannoni). Many schools refused to change because of how the later start and dismissal times would affect extracurricular activities and students with jobs. This change would also interfere with bus schedules and childcare habits. However, these seem like small problems that can be overcome when the results are that “later school start times were associated with students sleeping longer at night, less tardiness, having higher test scores, being less depressed, using less caffeine and other drugs, . . . and experiencing fewer morning car crashes” (Fenwick).

Every time school ends, students go straight to their practices. But what happens if our schedule changes, and we end up playing these sports in the dark. According to the article, “A later school day would interfere with tennis and possibly baseball” (Junior Scholastic). This shows us that starting school later in the day means bye bye light and hello darkness. Playing a sport such as football in the dark can get very confusing, especially if that football field doesn’t have any lights to show the players where they are going and who they are

There are many learning benefits that go along with later start times. According to pediatrics for parents, "the percentage of students who got eight or more hours of sleep went from 18% to 44%. Daytime sleepiness, depression and caffeine consumption were also significantly reduced. When the start time went back to 8: 00 AM, all the

Transportation is a major issue that would be impacted by a later school start time. For many school districts, including my own, buses are reused for the elementary and high school students. The problem with shared buses is that if the high school start time changes, so would the elementary start time. Elementary students

First, previous schools who have changed their starting time have had grades and attitude improvements. For example, Edina High, Minnesota, and Pike County, Kentucky’s school-wide GPA’s increased 23% and attitude survey showed 9.7% increase in students who “liked school.” Since the schools who have changed their starting time are seeing great improvement, I'm sure it will show in any other school who decides to change starting times. Next, moving the start time to 9 will push the ending time back to about 4 or 5. For instance, most parents are getting off at that time so it's benefiting the young children who are home alone after school.

Are you a person that loves to play sports, or you live out of town? If you are those people you wouldn't want school to start later. A lot of people play sports and if school started later it would be dark during part of practices. According to the article “should school start later?” it says “that it would be an effect on some sports. It would be dark during part of the practice because some sports start at about 4:00 or maybe around 5:00 and practice goes on for a couple hours so it would start to get dark towards the end. Some kids might be doing practice in the dark and some may want to quit playing because it is to hard to play in the dark.

School is not the most desirable place that a teenager would want to be at seven hours a day, five days a week, 180 days a year, and even more problematic is that for them to get to school on time, they have to fight their biological clocks (Hansen). Many schools have started pushing their start times back by even just an hour, and helped with the students grades and mental health by giving them the time they need to sleep (“4 Good Snooze”). Pushing start times back a good idea because it will give students the rest they need to be successful.

Is sleep important? A question that many people wonder to themselves at night. Of course, the answer is yes. Sleep is one of the most important things in our lives, it keeps our brains healthy and working. It gives our brain cells time to relax and not over-work. However, some teens aren 't getting the 8.5 hours of sleep they need, and believe the school is responsible for it. In most districts, schools start times around 7:00 am in some cases. Parents and students believe that the school district should change this and make the start of the school day later, so that they can get the right amount of sleep they need to function. In the Scope article, “Should School Start Later?” by Justin O’Neill, “Teachers Oppose Later Start Times” by Julie Zauzmer and Dana Hedgpeth, and “Eight Major Obstacles to Delaying School Start Times” By The National Sleep Foundation, discuss the issue surrounding the idea of students not getting enough sleep at night and that we should make the start of school later. On the other hand, other people think that the school day should stay the same. Although some people argue to make school start later, I think the times should stay the same because school ending later will mess up students after school schedules, getting more bus drivers would be expensive, and changing the school times might send the wrong message.

I do think that changing start times will help boost academic scores and participation. Erde tells us that “communities that have been able to change school start times, they report improvement in academic performance, a decrease in teen depression, a decrease in tardiness and truancy, an increased alertness in class, and a reduction in teen car accidents”. This quote shows the link between adequate

As Ripley notes, “Athletics even dictate when school starts: Despite research showing that later start times improve student performance, many schools begin before 8 a.m., partly to reserve afternoon daylight hours for athletic practice” (11). She goes on to describe that, sports programs are responsible for late night practices, pep rallies, and games (Ripley 11). As this shows, after-school activities are causing students to stay up longer, which can result in them being less rested for school the following morning. It is important for students to realize that adequate sleep provides energy that will help carry them through the rest of the

Secondly, school starts at 8:15 an ideal time in my opinion is 9:15. Also having a good night sleep is key to studying and learning and thinking and growth mentally and physically. Furthermore i don’t think anybody gets enough sleep. Because we are teenagers and we stay up for a ridiculous amount of time school should start later. And teachers often don’t like it when people start to fall asleep or don’t pay attention and this is a side effect of not getting enough sleep. So if the

A big reason school’s may enjoy having a later start time, is because it can contribute to the school’s success. A later start time can improve the school’s overall test scores (Why We Must - and Can - Restore Safe & Healthy School Hours). Students can learn their best when they are not tired or drowsy. The School Start Later — Healthy Hours campaign stated that, “Academic improvements have been shown, and overall school climate has been measurably improved when high schools have restored later start times,” (Why We Must - and Can - Restore Safe & Healthy School Hours). The sleep researcher mentioned earlier, Wendy Troxel, said in her presentation that when kid’s are woken up by an alarm, they are literally robbed of their dreams. Dreams are associated with learning development. In order for student’s to use the most of their brains, they need to be receiving the right amount of good quality sleep. Not only do test scores rise, but so does the graduation rate, which is a major problem in today’s generation (Why We Must - and Can - Restore Safe & Healthy School Hours). In contribution to the student success, later start times could drastically improve the school’s success. Later start times have increased attendance around

School should not start right away in the morning. Since classes begin at nearly 8:00 A.M. students are not getting enough sleep. According to Lori Boyland, an associate professor at Ball State University, in her article, “Changing school times to combat adolescent sleep deprivation: perceptions of school stakeholders,” “The average amount of time that adolescents need to sleep is 9 to 10 hours per night for full restoration” (Boyland 1). One night, while I was still in cheerleading, there had been a basketball scheduled. I was cheering that night and I had an essay due the next morning. I had asked for an extension, but there was no way the teacher said if I needed an extension, then I would have to sit out of cheering because my grades were

Adolescents don’t choose to stay up late; they do know the consequences of being tired the next day. “The starting time of school puts limits on the time available for sleep, this is a nonnegotiable limit established largely without concern