School Start Time = Success
February 10, 2023
School starting so early in the morning can be a major mood killer for students. Students can be tired and cranky from the lack of sleep. According to the CDC, they state, “…teenagers aged 13–18 years should sleep 8–10 hours per 24 hours.” Unfortunately, many teens don’t meet this suggestion due to sports, lots of schoolwork, and even work. So the question is: How can we solve this problem? Focusing on the way schools are set up might be the solution.
Many students think pushing back the start time of school would be a good idea. Senior Emily Bates says, “I think school starting later would really help the attendance and tardiness issue. Students would be more likely to not be late to school and miss class if they didn’t have to be to school so early.” Hopefully, if school started at a later time, students would take advantage of the situation and use it to get an extra hour or so of sleep. The more sleep students get, the more energized they will feel throughout the day. When students are energized, they will be less likely to go back to sleep or be sluggish in the morning. As a result, school starting later would increase the energy students feel in the morning, so they are ready to tackle the day.
Yet some students think the results would be the same no matter how late school starts. “I think that it wouldn’t matter what time we started, we’d never have enough sleep. The later we start, the later we stay up,” says Junior Joya Grymburg. No matter what time school starts, many students still have work and sports after school. If those events don’t adapt to schools starting later, it could leave students with a lot of homework to do in the evening. Then they still will be staying up late and getting the same amount of sleep as before. To summarize, starting school at a later time might not be beneficial for students who have extracurricular activities after school or for students who chose to stay up late.
Overall, starting school later could potentially be beneficial for students. It could help them stay engaged in school and show punctuality. Although this could only happen if students make the most of their time and do not stay up late. Regardless of how you spend the extra time, the majority of students would be happy if school started later. According to “abcnews.go.com” they state, “90 percent felt their academic performance would improve if school started later in the morning.” However, until that day comes, you might as well make the best out of the situation you are in.
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