Why Should School Start Later? Enhancing Academic Performance, Attendance, and Student Engagement

If middle and high school students start school no earlier than 8:30 a.m., then they should maintain good health. Teens serve an important role in growth and development. With that said, they must be well rested for the next school day. Our school should start later for young adolescents because extra sleep should boost their academic performance, improves school attendance, and students will have a positive attitude towards learning.

First of all, more sleep leads to better school attendance. In fact, the University of Minnesota did an experiment at the Minneapolis high schools in order to see the effects of students coming to school at a later time. When the school times were changed from 7:15 a.m. - 8:40 a.m., attendance increased by 5% and students were energetic during the first two periods of the day. So, why shouldn’t our school adapt their approach to the needs of restless students? In fact, if 15% of the students are getting the sleep that they need, then 85% of adolescents are getting less than 9 hours of sleep because schools start earlier. If students arrived at school later than they would normally do, then they should stay healthy and have the strength to carry on with their school day.

Furthermore, many teachers complain that a majority of their students have a dilatory in coming to school. My school, PVHS, has a law that states that if you have three tardies from school, then you will get a letter home. By doing so, students will have extra stress on their plates to complete work that they missed and could result in a detention as well. Students need extra sleep in order to come to school on time, but due to earlier school times, students choose to oversleep. It would be a lot better for schools to have students that are ready to learn. In fact, according to the Michigan study, “Attendance for every grade in all of their Minneapolis high schools improved.” If so, then all schools should have perfect attendance and they won’t have to chase down other students. They should use that time, instead, to manage the school itself.

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In addition, with stringent regulations of applying to different colleges today, one must maintain proficient grades. With a start time of 8:00 a.m. studies have shown that students are lethargic during the first two periods of the day. Students need to reach their full potential in order to become the epitome of mainstream success. Students may not get enough sleep because they’re studying for many hours. It is challenging for a student to go to school, stay after for extracurricular activities, come home, eat dinner and get their homework done immediately. Teenagers are only teenagers once and they need the time to socialize with friends, listen to music and watch TV in order to have a stress-free environment. An extra hour of sleep should help students relax and feel ready to arrive at their school classes.

Many adults feel that if there was an extra hour of sleep, then students would be using that time to fool around, but that isn’t true. Many students in my high school, have jobs and they must pay for the gas and the insurance so they decide to get a job. With an extra hour of sleep, young adolescents should have more time to accomplish what they have to do. It also isn’t the end of the world if there is an extra hour added to the school schedule, especially for extracurricular activities. For example, school time for me ends at 2:53 p.m. and, then I have the theater club at 3:30 p.m. Classes should just end at 3:15 p.m. instead. Usually, sports at schools start during the fall and spring. Daylight savings occur and it is still lit outside until 6 p.m. Even if sports are indoors, there are lights in the gymnasium as well. Sports and school will be on the same track with a similar routine. It seems that there is no problem whatsoever, so school officials should stop making school start earlier.

Despite the fact that schools start at an earlier time, it is important that starting school at later times should be considered because students should get better grades, have perfect attendance, and want to have a passion for learning. If not, then students won’t be able to reach their full potential in life if they aren’t motivated to become adept learners.

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