Should Schools Start Later?

If you want better grades and more sleep, school should start later. Many schools are considering early start times. In fact, at least three schools in Maine are considering starting school later. Middle and high schools should start later because students and parents would be less tired and because children would be able to play outside when the sun is out.

Typically, people enjoy receiving an extra hour of sleep, even an extra five minutes of sleep. Teens are just one group of people who enjoy sleep. Unfortunately, teens are unable to obtain the correct number of hours per night. Later school start times would be beneficial because the schools would see an impact on attendance, increased school performance, and based on several studies, students would receive the recommended amount of sleep. The psychological effects would greatly outweigh the negative effects caused by an early start time. Benefits of a later start time include, better health, improved grades and teens reaching the recommended amount of sleep per night. Downfalls of starting school later would be transportation issues, coddling

If we start school later then kids test scores will increase, they wont fall asleep in class and they would get the appropriate amount of sleep. According to upfrontmagazine.com, nNew research suggests that later high school starts have widespread benefits. Sleep experts at the university of Mminnesota studied eight high schools before and after the moved to later start times. They found that the later start time, the better off students were on measures like mental health, car crash rates, attendance, and in some schools, grades and standerized test scores. This is an accurate example because it comes from sleep experts at the university of minnesota that have actually studied this topic. With later starting time you’ll have more time to sleep and will be able to pay attention in class so you can get that good grade.

Have you ever been really tired when you wake up for school in the morning? Sleep is very important to all teens, or it should be. Young adults should have 8.5-9.25 hours of sleep every night, according to the National Sleep Foundation (NSF), in Sarah McKibben’s article “Wake Up Calls”. Unfortunately, two-thirds of teens are getting less than 7 hours of sleep each night, according to the NSF’s chart. This is causing a large number of schools and scientists to think that schools should start later in the morning. I fiercely disagree with this. Schools should not start later because starting later for high schools would cause too many negative consequences.

Redondo Beach Unified school district should implement that all schools in the district need start an hour later. 60% of children under the age of 18 complained to their parents about being tired, and 15% said they fell asleep during the school year. Across our country, Evidence has shown that teenagers are indeed seriously sleep deprived, affecting their school work.

Whenever the alarm goes off almost everyone wants to hit the snooze button. Kids are not getting enough sleep, but is starting school later the solution? Starting school later would mean transportation issues and school would get out later. Also, extra curricular activities for some kids end as late as nine o’clock now so pushing the start time back would cause kids getting home really late and still not getting enough sleep. Schools should not start any later.

What do you think about the time your school starts? Have you ever thought about the affects of your opinion would have on other students? Some people believe school should begin earlier. Some people believe school should start later. In my opinion school start time should stay the same because it would affect students in a negative way by not getting enough sleep, not spending time with their family and not participating in after school activities.

How would you feel if your parent couldn’t take you to school or drive you to the bus because schools starts after they would already need to be at work? How would you like if practices or outside actives were cut short due to school start time? Schools began starting earlier in the 1990s. The average time schools start is 8:03 am. Only 17.7% of 39,700 public middle and high schools start at 8:30 am or later. I believe that the earlier start time is an advantage. With schools being a big advantage to help us plan for life, we need to make sure we use this precious time to learn. If school would start later there would be less time for outside activities and practices, your parent mostly likely couldn’t help you get ready in the morning and drive you to school because they would already be at work, and truly if school starts later, then most people would go to bed later.

There has always been a controversy as to if the school day should start later on in the morning or not. The University of Minnesota study shows that schools who have already changed the beginning of the school day to later have found that only a third of students actually received eight or more hours of sleep while the students who received less than eight hours reported to have more symptoms of depression, higher counts of caffeine, and substance abuse with alcohol and drugs. In “Should the School Day Start Later?” written by Michael Gonchar, Gonchar writes that, “New evidence suggests that a later start to the school day could have all sorts of benefits…” Some of those benefits could include the decrease of tardiness, increase in attendance, test scores and everyday grades, more positive mental health, and even car crash rates. All in all the research and studies over if the school day should start later has been in discussion for years.

I believe schools should move to a later start time. Starting later will be beneficial to teens. Starting time later will benefit teens because as they are growing and getting older they are requiring more sleep. First, teens require more sleep. For instance, teens require about 9.5 hours of sleep after puberty but only get 7.5 hours.

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.

In the article Our kids need more sleep by Valerie Erde, argues that schools should start later to accommodate student’s adequate sleep schedules. This article talks about all the tremendous benefits teens and children receive from getting more sleep. I strongly believe that schools should be starting a bit later to help students receive more sleep.

“Hhhhrrrrrnnnnggggg,” your restless sleep has been interrupted by the distressing alarm clock. Here it goes again, another long day in school running on an empty tank of gas. The time is five forty-five and you are already running late. You have just enough time to throw on your clothes and wet your teeth before running out to catch the school bus. This is all too common in the lives of many Savannah Chatham County Public School System students. This may even be common for you, The Board of Education members. To solve many school problems, school should start at eight thirty instead of the crack of dawn.

Almost every day high school students are waking up around six o’clock in the morning to get ready for school, some even earlier than that. Nearly every morning students are waking up without adequate sleep. If sleep is one of the most essential needs of the body in order to grow and develop, shouldn’t we be more aware of how much it affects students everyday performance? The ways in which students are affected by sleep-deprivation is precisely why school needs to start later.

We live in an age when many growing adolescents are constantly fighting their natural body clocks. It could potentially be one of the biggest issues facing our high school systems. Many school’s across America have started to push back their school start times. Is it worth it? The answer is yes. School should start later in order to unlock our nation’s high school potential.