The Pros And Cons Of Later School Start Times

School Start Times: Waking Up to the Truth Imagine staying up until the wee hours of the morning to finish the homework that had been accumulated during the day, only to have to get up a few hours later to catch the school bus, knowing that succeeding in class the next day would be short of a miracle. For many students, this scenario is not only feared but a reality they must face. The American Academy of Pediatrics states, “About 90% of high-school-aged adolescents get insufficient sleep on school nights…”(“Early

Why Schools Should Have a Later Start Time Did you ever know that there are ways to help students improve their health by having their school time start later? There are many things that can change when schools have a later start time. There can be improvements and could make some new problems too. Someone against school starting later can bring up many issues. These issues could be, what about transportation?

Schools should start no later than 8:30 AM. One reason is the extra hours of daylight saved by starting earlier can be used on after school and extracurricular activities. In the article “What is the Advantage of Having School Start Early” by Marie Anderson paragraph three it states that “There are many sports in the school and in extracurricular activities that use daylight to practice outdoors and if the school starts even a half an hour later that is still a half an hour of daylight wasted. It also gives kids who walk home after school the advantage of the extra half an hour of light.” I agree with this because I am an outdoorsy person and during football, track, and hunting season it is nice to be able to go hunting after football practice.

The average high school day starts around 7:59 am, while thirty three percent of US public school start between 7:30-7:59 am (National Center for Education Statistics). These early start times force growing teens to wake up even as early as 4:30am to catch bus rides. With that being said, “From April to July 2017, the number of employed youth 16 to 24 years old increased by 1.9 million to 20.9 million, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. This year, 54.8 percent of young people were employed in July, up by 1.6 percentage points from a year earlier” (Bureau of Labor Statistics). The youth workforce is steadily growing.

School times are too early. This has been a hot topic for quite some time now. Several school districts around the country have enacted laws that make school start time later, and they have had great results. Since making school times later they have experienced better grades, attendance rates, and higher test scores. It has saved a lot of students’ lives.

A crisis is destroying our nation. Students are forced to wake up early and in the process, they are being tormented and damaged. Later school start times would be beneficial and solve the problem... but, the trouble is, only 20% of the whole nation has start times at 8:30 am or later. Therefore, to solve the dilemma, schools should start later because it’s beneficial to children’s health, makes their learning more effective, and youth would have a better status of mood.

“Sleep is that golden chain that ties health and our bodies together. ”- Thomas Dekker. Schools should have a later start time because kids who have time to get ready in the morning and have time to eat breakfast feel more energized, more focused, get more involved in class, and have a better memory. Students focus better during the day with more time to sleep, more time to focus on homework, and more time to devote to activities in the evenings.

Why school should start later? School days are not supposed to start before 8:30 a.m. for middle and high schoolers. This fact is supported by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine that links early days to car accidents along the roads, depression among the young teenagers and increase in poor performance academically due to early school days. Teens struggle through the challenge of waking up very early in the morning so that they can be at school at the right time.

I walked into my A.O. The bell just rang. I looked at the people sitting next to me. I could just tell by the look in their eyes. They were really tired.

Late start school has a negative effect on the whole community, not just the students. One way that late start school would affect the whole community is that many bus routes would possibly have to be altered to accommodate the late start schedule. New buses may have to be purchased and new drivers would then have to be hired. Purchasing new buses and hiring new drivers would take away district/grant money that teachers need to purchase school supplies, pay for extracurricular activities and pay for out of class activities. Many parents would also have to go out of their way to take their children to school.

Oh man I am so tired! In some school’s they start at 8:00 and one school starts at 7:17 am. Most of the kids are still half asleep. How can you prevent this from happening. In the article, “Should School start later” By Lisa M. Herrington, it addresses the positives and the negatives of having school start earlier.

School should start later because they get more sleep. Get to school on time. Make fewer trips to the school nurse. Students get to eat breakfast. Reduced risk of car accidents.

What would you do with two more hours of sleep each night? Many students would say that it would help them complete school work and get enough sleep to not be tired throughout the school day. Students who are not well rested show up to class drowsy and not ready to learn, however students who get decent hours of sleep each night come engaged and ready to learn. Schools in the United States should have later start times because it is important for teenagers to get eight to nine hours of sleep at night and people’s bodies are not built to get few hours of sleep.

Many surrounding cities and towns are starting to implement later start times for middle and high school students. Many of these schools are finding positive outcomes. Some reasons for these positive outcomes include improved learning and health and students being more awake. Provided it is implemented properly, students should be able to get more sleep, otherwise it could have negative effects. Maybe changing school start times for Windham would benefit the students learning.