Graduation Speech : School Start Times

For years and years there has been a lot of discussion about when a reasonable time for students to wake up and go to school should be. There are two main sides. One side believes that school should start later, and the other side believes that the school start times should not be changed. The average teenagers’ alarm for school goes off as early as 6:00 A.M. A little less than half of U.S. public schools start before 8:00 A.M. Studies show that over half of students are not getting 8 hours of sleep or more. That leads to the 33% of teenagers who are found asleep in the classroom (Owens).

When the alarm clock sets off at 6:00 A.M., it's another grueling morning that follows with making the bed, washing up, dressing, and leaving to take the bus by 7:00 A.M. Sometimes, you're lucky enough to get a ride or drive yourself to school to get an extra five to ten minutes of sleep and squeeze in breakfast, hoping you make it in time for first period at 7:45 A.M. A daily routine like this is all too familiar and high school is a challenge for students, more than just academically. For four years, high school students face a similar routine of waking up in the early hours of the morning to head to school before 8 o'clock, for five days a week.

Sleep, of course. Adolescents need more sleep in general. Several major health organizations have their own sleep guidelines. To illustrate, the AASM recommends 8-10 hours of sleep, the NHLBI suggests 9-10, and the CDC advises 8.5-9.5 hours. Despite this, the CDC estimates over 70% of teens get 7 hours of sleep or less.

Beep-Beep-Beep. The loud shrill of your alarm wakes you up from your deep sleep. Have you ever wanted school to start later? Maybe all you wanted was to just fall back to sleep. School districts have been looking at pushing school start times for older students who could get extra sleep for a long time. There have even had studies conducted to find the benefits of a later start. But have they looked at the consequences? School start times should stay the same.

Schools Start Time “ Waking up a teenager at 7 am is equivalent to waking an adult up at 4 am.” Nobody, teenagers or adults, like to be woken up early, Especially to go to work or school. Schools should start later so kids can focus better, attendance will improve, and health will improve.

As children age and move from the first decade of life into the second the temptations to stay up later increases. The preference to stay up later is nearly universal among teenagers in all cultures and has even been observed in other mammals suggesting a biological basis. At the same time teenagers are beginning to stay up later and their recommended amount of daily sleep (8-10 hours) remains unchanged. Teenagers are unable to sleep in later as school start time determines when they must wakeup in the morning. This has led to an epidemic of chronically sleep deprived teenagers with only a small number of teenagers actually receiving

Many teens do not get enough sleep due to early start times and increased homework loads. Teen brains have different biological clocks that younger kids. This means that teen brains require eight- and a half to nine- and a half hours of sleep

The start times of public middle and high schools in America range from 7 am to 9 am, with the majority average beginning at 8 am each morning. In my opinion, early school times have caused adolescents waking up too early for school every day and negatively impact their sleep health. Therefore, early school start times can lead to a decrease in school performance.

You Are asleep, in the blissful backwater of your head. You swirl among your dreams, when all of a sudden, screeching. a never ending cacophony. It's your alarm, and it time for school. We have all experienced this at least once before. And we've all hated it. But maybe there's a reason we hate it. It's not good for us. Especially with teenagers requiring so much sleep its imperative that school as a whole start later in the day, and by moving it later it would improve the mental abilities and heath of modern teens.

Beep beep beep! An alarm clock wails as a tenneager gets up at 6AM to go to school. The teen is groggy from not sleeping enough the night before and has to be at school by 7AM. According to Mental Health Weekly Digest, the American Academy of Pediatrics (APP) is calling for high schools to start no earlier than 8:30AM. Despite this, the majority of high schools start class between 7 and 8AM. Consequently, students are not getting the recommended 8.5 to 9.5 hours of sleep (Mental). Because of this, later school start times are the best way to combat teenage sleeping patterns that conflict with school schedules.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! I am pushed out of my blissful dream and pulled into reality, my eyes don’t want to open, just for the noise to stop so I can go back to that wonderful peaceness in my warm bed. It’s my alarm going off, for a second I consider hitting the snooze for those extra five minutes, but I know if I do it’ll be another rushing-to-get-ready-morning. Schools should really start later! Ninety percent of teens are sleep deprived and I am one of them. Starting school about an hour later has many benefits as shown in hundreds of schools around the country. Some of these benefits include: students feeling more awake, better test scores, better attention spans and improved health. Changing school times can help students exponentially.

High school students spend seven hours a day in school, five days a week. To put this into a greater perspective that is 35 hours a week, 154 hours a month and approximately 1,358 hours a year. Numerous high school students feel that delaying the school start time by one hour would benefit their grades and mood because of sleep gained. It is important for those challenging the current start time to take into consideration that one who spends 35 hours a week in school may be sleep deprived due to other reasons, such as time management. High school starting an hour later would not be beneficial because scheduling would be difficult for parents and time would be drained from extra activities. There are various alternatives for tired students other than a later start time.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! There it is the annoying sound of the alarm clock an exhausted student hits snooze despite the fact they have school. Some would say teens do this because they’re lazy others would say this happens because they stay up late watching tv or messing around on their phones but this actually happens because of school start times. High school students need later start times for the following reason; Students catch up on sleep and are more energized for school, it will improve grades, and it is healthier for the students’ mental state of being.

One of the reasons that school should be started later is because it does not give growing teens enough time to sleep. Sleep researcher, Wendy Troxel, who spoke on TED, says that high school aged kids’ sleep cycles do no start until 11 p.m and do not end until 8 a.m. This means that whenever students’ alarms go off from anywhere around 5-7:30 a.m, it simply does not

It is often said that the early bird gets the worm, but that is not the case for school start times. Many schools across the country have adolescents wake up in the wee hours of the morning to get ready and go to school. Evidence from complete studies suggests that teenagers are seriously sleep deprived. Waking up so early is not always beneficial, although some people do believe that it is efficient. School start times should be later because it improves adolescents’ health and academic performance, and it can increase the safety of the community.