School Should Begin Later in the Day
Many teenage high school students are tired during the school day,
distracting them from their studies. That is just one of the many good reasons
that the starting time of school should be later in the day.
Some people may say that the brain not being fully functional until 9:30 is
just a matter of opinion. Studies have suggested that the average adolescent
brain doesn’t even start to fully function until around 9:30 am. Many schools
already use the suggested later arrival time, so there students can be ready to
learn when they arrive at school.
Another thing that everyone knows or remembers about high, school is all
of the homework that needs to be done for tomorrow. Plus projects that are due,
persuasive essays that need written, and the time you need to be a teenager.
Most students even have so much work that they’ll stay up all night just to get it
done. When needing a minimum of 9 hours of sleep as a teenager, getting up at
6:30 to be ready for school is just not enough time. It’s easy to think that
students will just procrastinate even more, but the average teenager is smarter
than you may think.
It sounds absurd to think that students sleep during the school day. The
fact is that many students fall asleep during class. Remember that sleep isn’t
something you can make yourself not want. Throwing water on your face,
listening to loud music, or taking a shower cannot make your bodies craving for
sleep disappear. The fact is puberty demands more sleep.
There are also risks involved with not getting enough sleep. Most people
will be very sleepy and drowsy during the day, mood and behavioral problems,
and even increased vulnerability to drugs and alcohol. These things could also
develop more into serious sleeping disorders. Experts advise to not read or
In her essay, “A Defense of Abortion”, Judith Thomson argues that abortion is morally permissible in most cases even when the fetus is considered a person. She does this by claiming that the right to bodily autonomy supersedes the right to life in almost every case and that the intention of the mother is important in defining when an abortion is permissible. Through multiple thought experiments she shows that the Western perspective often places more importance on the right to autonomy than the right to life even though it is claimed otherwise, and that if a mother does not intend to become pregnant she is not morally obligated to carry the fetus to term in most cases. I will examine these thought experiments and their implications in Thomson’s argument, present a rebuttal and speculate on her response.
Waking up early at 6:00 A.M in the morning isn’t the funniest thing to do. The times on when school starts should be changed to a later time. Schools should change start times to later there is even factual evidence that this is true. In the article ‘The Teen Who Woke Up Her School’ by Jane Bianchi wrote about a teen named Jilly Dos Santos who put hard work into petitions and powerpoints to show how more sleep can better not only her but other people on school work and sports. People need more sleep to function and get through the day and to be more alert about things around them.Evidence from scientist and from teens show that people work better when they have more energy and got a good night's rest and when students don’t they sometimes start
Portraying the prisoners inside the cave for a lifetime further describes his beliefs on how closed minded society is in his opinion. The “light outside the cave” explains how he feels knowledge is the source of light to everyone’s lives. Without knowledge, there is lack of light. Also, since society does not want to gain further knowledge, they will seem to stay stuck in the dark tunnel. Plato also uses personification to give reader insight on how someone may treat the earth and appreciate it. For example, Plato states “Clearly, he said, he would first see the sun and then reason about him.” The reasoning behind this is to explain how a man would reason with the sun as if it were an actual speaking person. The style of Plato’s writing gives readers an understanding on why his work is named “Allegory of the Cave”. The use of his rhetorical devices give deeper meanings to the Earth and the nature it
Thompson believes that the fact of whether of not a fetus is a person is completely irrelevant towards the issue of abortion. This is mainly because she has found the point of becoming a person cannot be proved with complete confidence. Judith does not seem to understand why people think that just because a fetus may actually be a person that it ...
It is true that sleep deprivation is a widespread issue, generally resulting from early start times. It is also a serious one; according to a study by Harvard Medical School, sleep deprivation can lead to issues such as obesity, heart disease, difficulty learning, and can genuinely shorten a person’s lifespan. As Robbins explains, teenagers have a different internal sleep clock than other age groups. It is most healthy for students in high school to go to bed around 11 and wake up around 9. Since school often begins as early as 7, students are told they simply need to go to bed early, around 8 or 9 PM. This contention does not take into account the fact that humans are biologically not wired this way, and it's virtually impossible for most teens to fall asleep this early. It also doesn't take into account that with clubs, sports, church, volunteering, other extracurriculars and hours of homework, students often struggle to start their homework before their suggested “bedtime”. It is contended that students can control their own schedules so that they can get more sleep. However, pressure from parents and peers to get into a “good” college can cloud students’ perceptions of what is right for them, making them choose to overwork themselves in order to build impressive resumes. I myself can identify with this phenomenon. During the weekdays alone, I volunteer two nights a
Abortions occur for all types of reasons, whether it is because the pregnancy was unplanned, rape-induced, or that it holds a life threatening capacity for the woman herself. Pro-lifers believe once one is conceived, he or she are entitled to a right to live. It does not matter whether or not the pro-lifers are able to prove that a fetus consists of personhood. The life of a potential person should not be able to override the right to one’s body. Judith Thomson presents a though experiment where personhood is granted to a fetus, but how that mere fact still fails to override the woman’s right to her body.
On average, high school students receive about 3.5 hours of homework each night and elementary school students are getting about three times the amount that is recommended, which is ten minutes per grade, so 10 minutes for 1st grade and 50 minutes for 5th grade. Homework takes time to do after school and extracurriculars. If a student goes to school at 9:00 and gets out at 4:00, then goes to an after-school activity from 4:00 to 6:00, they will come home and have dinner from about 6:30 to 7:15, which means that they will probably start homework at around 7:30. This means that high school student would be up until about 11:00 finishing their homework, that’s without factoring in how much time the students will waste. 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 schools do start later.
In “From Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave,” Frederick Douglass reveals his life as a slave in America during the 18th century. Douglass was born into slavery in 1817, but unlike many slaves back then Douglass learned how to read and write. It was not easy for him to learn to read and write since it was illegal to show a black man how to do so during that period. He was introduced to reading and writing by one of his master’s wives, Mrs. Hugh Auld, but shortly that came to end and Douglass had to find another way of learning. Nevertheless, Douglass went on determined to learn and became friends with the poor white kids so they could teach him for an exchange of bread. Douglass eventually went on to become a free man in 1847, and published
The Inviolability of human life is something that essentially all people hold to be true, whereas in the case of abortion the waters become muddied and discussion turns from peaceful conference too hateful rhetoric. Judith Thomson, in her paper A Defense of Abortion, allows for some leeway in order for a form of discussion to commence. Breaking down her opposition’s main talking points and allowing for one of the highly contingent positions to be true is the style in which she attempts to dismantle their arguments. She does this so that even with the allowance that a fetus is a person from the moment of conception that fact does not give her oppositions argument any more validity. I believe Miss Thomson manufactures a compelling but ultimately flawed case and therefore her argument should not be held as valid.
In A Defense of Abortion, Thomson begins by establishing that while she does not believe a fetus is a person, for the sake of her argument she will permit the premise that a fetus is a person (Thomson 47). Thomson then states that while a fetus has a right to life, the mother also has a right to decide what happens in and to her body and that these two premises are self-evident (Thomson 50). She then states that in the case of abortion, surely the fetus’s right to life outweighs the mother’s right to bodily autonomy. For those who agree with that conclusion, Thomson offers the following thought
In A Defense of Abortion, Judith Thomson argues that abortion is permissible even in cases when a mother’s life is not in danger. Thomson starts her argument by mentioning the classic defenses of abortion which are focused on “drawing the line” of when a fetus can be considered a human. Thomson argues that this argument is weak and oversimplified in arguing the moral rightness of abortion (p.817). She believes that the abortion argument is centered on the fetus’s right to life and a woman’s right to control her own body. She states, “Every person has a right to life. So the fetus has a right to life. No doubt the mother has a right to decide what shall happen in and to her body…” (p.818). However, these two rights conflict when a fetus interferes the woman’s right to her own body. A specific example would be when a woman does not want to carry her fetus to term, or in carrying the unborn fetus, it endangers her life. In considering this, Thomson asks if the fetus’s rights are weightier than the woman’s right to her own body. Thomson concludes that the fetus is not entitled to a woman’s body. Termination of a fetus is not a betrayal of a moral obligation, while carrying a
The allegory of the cave represents how humans can often skew reality due to beliefs that we create in our own imagination to explain the world around us. We must free ourselves from being led to believe in things without properly seeking evidence to support or counteract our beliefs by getting out of the cave to witness the actual world with our own eyes. Plato attempts to display man’s lifestyle, as well as their entire belief system, as one of bondage to perceptions. It can be very difficult to rid our minds of all we believed originally and establish a new way of thinking. However, like the prisoner who suffers from the bright light when he first gets out the cave, we will get used to the light and be thankful to whoever brought him out of the “dark” cave and enter the world with “light”. This light is used to illustrate enlightenment, or a transition from a state of ignorance to a state of understanding. Plato highlights that education is a process of learning spiritual knowledge, but that everyone has the inherited power to learn within their soul. On the other hand, the process of enlightenment can vary drastically from person to person. However, Plato expresses the notion that in an ideal world there will be equality among the people on many levels. For example, it is believed that all of the knowledge should be known by every citizen, so that everyone has the same opportunities to seek a fulfilling life with the knowledge of their surroundings. Once the prisoners have seen the light outside of the cave, they then have the responsibility to go back into the depths of the dark cave and attempt to enlighten the ignorant prisoners who still chose to live under the shadows, because they refuse to listen to information that dif...
The alarm beeps again sounding like a fire alarm going off. School starts before 8am. Using your fingers to hold open your eyes and dragging your feet, you get in the car and drive yourself to school. Will you even be able to make it through your day? School days for teens start to early. Teens aren't getting the sleep recommended for a healthy start to their day. Later start times for middle and high schools are proven to benefit both students and teachers.
A new poll by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health finds that 50 percent of high school students say that there school starts at eight a.m. or earlier. The poll also showed that 1 out of 5 teens said they start school before 7:30 a.m. Students need a later school start time because they don’t need the...
The alarm goes off at six am and the typical high school student is barely able to open their eyes. It is time to get up and prepare for a full day at school, about eight hours. Most teenagers, according to the National Sleep Foundation, will only get about six hours of sleep since they tend to stay up until midnight (“Should schools start later in the day?”). After getting ready, many students look forward to a nap in their first hour class despite the information they will miss. Teenagers seem to always have had trouble getting up in the morning, even earning the title of lazy from their parents. However, recent research on adolescent sleep patterns has produced a biological explanation for this tendency. This raises a serious question: why are high schools starting early in the morning when teenagers are biologically programmed to sleep in? For most cases, school start time has not been conformed to fit student physiological needs simply because of transportation issues.