Should School Start Later?

Almost 10% of U.S. high schools start before 7:30 a.m. Over 20% of middle schools start class at 7:45 a.m. or earlier. This is leaving students everywhere overwhelmed and tired. This can lead to tremendous effects on their health and grades. Research shows that only do later start times improve those things, but ends up increasing the school's yearly income in the long run. For these reasons, schools should make their hours later because it can affect students grades and health in a positive way.

Think about this, you wake up at 8:00 am and start school at 9:00 am. Awesome right? Wrong! According to the article, “Should School Start Later,” “Not everyone is in favor of earlier start times. Many school districts say they would present big challenges.”

School days should start later in the day because there are many benefits to doing so. Such as improved grades, Test scores, and safer roads because teens won’t be as drowsy if they sleep 8 plus hours.

Suppose you are getting up out of bed to go to school in the morning. Your mom needs to arrive at work at 8:30, but your school just changed their start time to 9:45 because children at the school were falling asleep in class. You are forced to awaken at the same time you started waking up at, because your mom has to be at work. You have to go with your friend, who has his mother take him everyday. You have your mother take you at the same time as before to drop you off at your friend's house to wait.

“Making teens start school in the morning is cruel” says brain doctor. Mary Carskadon at Brown University has shown that teenagers need about nine hours a night to maintain full alertness and academic performance. Getting up at 6:00 am is totoo early. We should have a later start time because we need more sleep to focus, tTeens need a certain amount of sleep, and we need to stop dozing off in class.

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.

Does anyone really like going to school earlier than 8:30 am? In a survey among 39,700 public schools in the United States, the average start time was 8:03 a.m. and only 17.7% of these public schools started school at 8:30 a.m. or later. Having schools start later in the day would be beneficial to both the students and staff. By this action, students can concentrate on other activities when outside of school, students can get enough rest, and teachers can have more time to make lesson plans efficiently as well as schools saving money. The first benefit of starting school later is that students can concentrate on other activities when outside of school.

As children’s doctor and sleep expert Daniel Lewin stated, “The call for later school start times is an essential movement for keeping tweens and teens healthy.” Several reasons why school hours are unjust due to early start times include first, students not being able to focus as easily in class. Next, students also cannot participate to their full capability when their mind and body are not rested properly. Also, recent studies have concluded that teenagers cause more automobile accidents on their way to school, due to being sleep deprived. A negative perspective considering a later school start revolves around the idea that through history school hours have consistently ended before a specific time. This seems to support the fact that “after school

To begin, starting school later can improve students’ health and safety. The CDC urges people to schools to start later, and they have solid reasons for it. Researchers from Minnesota University analyzed over 9000 high school students and discovered that altering the original start time to a later one improved attendance, test scores, grades in math, social studies, and English, and decreased tardiness, drug abuse, and depression. Sadly, over 75% of schools in over 40 states start before 8:30. Without a doubt, later start times have obvious benefits

Each year, exhausted teenagers leave themselves to another day of battling their bodies clocks so they can get in class on time. It's outstanding that teenagers who don't get eight hours of rest a night confronts a large number of issues. That is the reason why both the American Institute of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control recommend shifting middle- and high-school start times to 8:30 a.m or later. However, during 2011-2012 school year, the latest statistics accessible — just 17.7 % of the national public middle, high and combined schools met the 8:30 a.m. rule, and almost 40% began before 8 a.m. In California, the normal start time was 8:07 a.m.

School start times vary across the country, from six to ten o’clock in the morning, and are heavily debated by students, parents, and superintendents. Some believe that the early bird gets the worm, while others demand their beauty sleep. I firmly believe that all schools should start later in the day, since it helps students get more sleep, perform better in school, and be more alert in class.

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.

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.

In discussions of whether or not schools should start later, one controversial issue has been that it gets in the way of parents work schedules. People who believe that it’s too much of an inconvenience claim that it’s never too soon to start getting used to an early schedule. On the other hand, those who believe schools should start later assert that it’s much better for a student's concentration and overall health. My own view is there are more benefits than negatives and we should really start to consider such a change.