More handpicked essays just for you.
Pros and cons of later school start times
Pros and cons of later school start times
Effect of school start times on academic performance
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Dardanelle school board,
We’ve all woken up tired not wanting to go to school, because we didn’t get enough sleep. Of course when I say we, I mean as in teens who go to school, and possibly yourself when at the time in your life. The schedule for school doesn’t fit in very well with our sleep patterns. Sleep experts from the University of Minnesota, have found that later start times made students have a better health measure and over perform better in school (Hoofman 2). Research being done on this topic mostly specifies that bodies don’t agree with the start time, for various reasons. School start times should be pushed back an hour to benefit teens health, and school performance.
Pushing back school hours helps a student get more sleep therefore doing better in school. Say a student just woke up and they're late to school, with little sleep. In their first class they have a test and because they’re tired paying attention is hard. “ new research suggests a letter high school starts have widespread benefits”(Hoofman 12). This study shows that research has been done showing us we
…show more content…
As the saying goes too much of a good thing is bad, so so maybe that could be one thing with studying. Yes, we all know that studying is a key part of making good grades but maybe staying too much is also a bad thing. “During REM. Sleep - A period of deep sleep that happens 3 to 5 times a night and well rest people - the brain is wildly active sorting and categorizing the days data. More sleep you get the better the information is absorbed”(Hoofman 12). So it is vital that we get enough sleep to be able to categorize what we have learned throughout the day at school. In a article it reads out “ the later first period begins, the higher distribution of students grade”( “Impact of school”). If our school really wants be one the best in the country and have the most outstanding scores, why not start school at a later
Allowing students to sleep more by starting school later would benefit them in a multitude of ways and keep them from feeling enervated. According to the online article, A Wake-Up Call on High-School Starting Times, “...troubled kids often get caught up in a distress cycle in which too little sleep causes them to experience anxiety and inner turmoil, which, in turn, cause them to lose more sleep. In the worst
How many times has this happened to you; it’s six thirty on a Tuesday morning, your alarm has already gone off twice, your still laying in bed and your bus comes in twenty minutes. This is an everyday occurrence at my house. It is a proven statistic that the average high school student does not get enough sleep. While some experts like Dr. Lee Yanku say “It is not the schools starting time that is the problem as to why students don’t get enough sleep, it is because of facebook, myspace and cell phones” The truth behind it is that we can’t budget sports, homework and extracurricular activities into one day and still get nine hours of sleep. This is hurting student’s academic averages and needs to change. Changing the school time will help boost academic averages among students, and isn’t th...
This leaves students with less than the recommended 9 hours of sleep. Students that have to stay up that late for homework will be tired in the morning, even if their school starts later. Many people argue that starting schools later will let students get more sleep and align with the students sleep cycles. But they do not factor in that students will just stay up later at night because they know that they do not have to get up as early in the morning. This will just leave students with less sleep than before.
When teens don't get enough sleep, they do bad on tests, but if they started later, they wouldn't be as tired and their grades would improve. According to Junior Scholastic, “Studies have shown that well rested teens get better grades, have better test scores and miss fewer days of school. This proves that kids should have a later start time because they can get better scores, while if they were tired, they wouldn't really care or try as hard.
If the start time of schools is pushed back, then the end time of school would likely be pushed back in order to make up for lost class time. If the end time of school is pushed back, then after school activities would need to be pushed back as well, leaving teenagers getting to their homes later in the evening which would to lead them going to sleep later. This argument undeniably valid, and there is no easy way around it. In order to not lose academic time, a compromise must be implemented. The start times of schools must be pushed back in order to allow teens to live healthy lifestyles, but the end time of schools does not have to be. Instead of pushing the whole day back an hour or two to compensate for losing the first hour or two, just push the start time back. This may seem counterintuitive because it would lead to schools losing class time. To make up for the lost time, schools should extend their year. Schools should add on an extra week or so, depending on how much school time was lost to the later start time, so that no class time would actually be lost. This compromise allows for better mental health of students as well as increased safety on the roads. It also allows teenagers to participate in all of their extracurricular activities while still getting all of their
In a recent study done by Yucaipa high school, 97% of students believe school should start later. Students should be able to start school at 9:00 a.m. Students should start later because kids will have a better attendance and less tardies. The more sleep students get the more energized they are, as well as having a better mood throughout the day. The majority of the students drive, so the more sleep they have helps decrease the rate of car accidents. Students are late, absent, cranky, and careless this is why school should start later.
Why School Should Have a Later Start Time Most students, if asked, would say they wished school started later for many reasons. School is a fundamental institution for educating children and learning needs to happen when the child has had a good night’s rest with the right amount of recommended sleeping hours. Teenagers tend to fall asleep later and have the need to sleep in. School should have a later start time because the adolescents would be cutting out quite a bit of risk factors, adolescents will feel healthier with extra sleep time, and there would be less risks of teenagers falling asleep in class.
If school started later, it would increase grades. For example, a high school that tried a later start time noticed big changes in their grades. The average SAT score for one class rose from 1288 to 1500 after the students got to sleep in longer (Popova, Maria).This shows that their grades grew 14% by just sleeping in longer. It also accentuates the long term effects of sleeping in more. In fact, the college board saw the new results and said it was “truly flabbergasting” (Popova, Maria). If even the college board agrees that starting school later could be beneficial, than why haven’t more schools taken action? Not only does later start times improve grades, it also keeps student safer.
Schools starting later will allow students’ brains to wake up fully. In the opinion of Donn Dexter he believes “high school students are reported to be excessively sleepy, resulting in decreased academic performance, increased psycho-social problems and increased risk of morbidity and mortality from accidents. Early school start times have been noted to contribute
“BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!” The teenage student slams on the snooze button and struggles to get out of bed for the early school day. Teens on average need 9 ¼ hours of sleep (Backgrounder: Later School Start Times). Teens currently average fewer than 7 hours of sleep (Backgrounder: Later School Start Times). Hectic schedules, poor sleep habits, homework, and family obligations are the problem (Backgrounder: Later School Start Times). Schools are considering starting their school days later in the morning. For example, one Minneapolis school considered pushing back their start time from 7:15 to 8:30. Another Seattle school considers pushing back the school day start reported Jean Enersen. Would this benefit the students or harm the students? Is this for the better or for the worse? These are questions many superintendents and school board members are asking themselves. They all want to do what is best for their students, so the topic takes a lot of thinking, planning, and conversations. School starting later can be a very controversial issue.
It’s 6:20 in the morning you and/or your kid have to wake up to get ready and to school on time. It’s a fight to get your tired teen out of bed and to school on time, but it’s really not their fault their still tired. Over the years school start times have gotten earlier and earlier. Today, however scientists and sleep doctors around the world are starting to notice the negative effects of this early start time on our youth. Schools should start later because teens don’t get enough sleep and sleep deprivation affects academic learning and student health.
Plus the University of Minnesota said that grades, test scores and overall performance is better when schools started later. If There is multiple facts and reasons to have later start times help students get through the school day. BY helping students get better grades, test scores, and overall better. And teens these days aren't getting the sleep they need to wake up early and go to school. SO that is why school should have later start times.
Teenagers’ internal clocks operate differently than the internal clocks of every other age group. Puberty delays the production of the sleeping hormone, melatonin, until later at night, making it difficult for adolescents to fall asleep before 11 P.M. The Centers for Disease Control recommends 8.5-9.5 hours of sleep, and yet two-thirds of students report getting less than 7 hours of sleep each night. Teens naturally go to bed late, and are forced to wake up earlier than they should because school starts too early. Choosing school over sleep should not be a decision anyone has to make.
In the article titled “Why School Should Start Later in the Morning,” author Emily Richmond states that “Researchers analyzed data from more than 9,000 students at eight high schools in Minnesota, Colorado, and Wyoming and found that shifting the school day later in the morning resulted in a boost in attendance, test scores, and grades in math, English, science, and social studies” (Richmond). On the other hand, if schools do not start earlier, grades and academics will not improve or will not be as high as they could be because of the effects lack of sleep has on the brain. For example, regular thought processes are slower in people if they do not get enough sleep; people are more prone to a lack of alertness and a lack of concentration (Peri). So, it is harder for students to focus in classrooms and pay attention to the tasks at hand. A lack of sleep can also impair one’s memory making it difficult for students to retain the material they learn in school (Peri). These effects apply to student athletes as well; if an athlete does not get enough sleep as he needs, his performance in his sport will not be as stellar because of his inability to be as alert and as focused as he
As psychologist Robert Leahy points out: "The average high school kid today has the same level of anxiety as the average psychiatric patient in the early 1950s. " Teenagers can not handle the pressure of having to get straight A’s, be the best athlete, and still be social with others. Academic work is taking away these kids lives. Receiving an indecent amount of sleep nightly is not fair because not only do teenagers have to struggle to finish all of their classwork, barely even getting sleep, they can never escape it, even on the weekends. Starting school at abnormally early hours prevent many students from getting the amount of hours per night that most teenagers need.