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The benefits of starting school later
No one likes having to wake up early for school and as kids grow into their teenage years, they are forced to wake up even earlier as they move on from elementary school to middle school and high school. When students get older, it gets even harder to wake up and it leads to many obstacles that can be avoided by starting school at later times. By starting schools later, students have been shown to improve academically, be more productive, not skip school, and maintain better health. A later start time should be incorporated into schools everywhere, especially high schools, for the benefit of teenage students.
Grades are a very important aspect of education to many high school students, and grades are immensely dependent on adequate sleep. Later start times would allow for a greater quantity and quality of sleep. Poor sleep has a negative effect on a student’s academic performance. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “Adolescents who do not get enough sleep are more likely to perform poorly in school”. Students who are not afforded the opportunity to get in the sufficient sleep they need will have a harder time focusing in school and doing well on exams. If schools were to push back the starting times in order to allow students to have a finer capacity of sleep, then the academic performance would improve, thus contributing to the common interest of all students.
Many teenagers fall victim to car accidents and poor attendance records. Later start times would mean an improvement in attendance and safety as fewer students would sleep in or fall under the risk of driving to school in drowsy conditions. Enabling students to sleep more would cause more students to come to school on time and make them less likely to drive to school in a fatigued state. The Science Daily revealed that “[...] later school start times were associated with a significant drop in vehicle accidents involving teen drivers”. This could be tied to the fact that teens are in a more rushed mood to get to school on time from waking up late or that they are driving while tired, which can lead to many dangers. By starting schools at later times, the risks of teen car accidents would be reduced and the overall attendance would improve, thereby allowing for the betterment of students in all places
Even with all the benefits of starting school at later times, there still remain those who challenge the idea. A common counterargument from the individuals in opposition to pushing back the schools’ starting times is that students should just sleep earlier. However, research has demonstrated that teenagers are biologically more likely to fall into a deeper sleep at later times. Science advocates say that “young people's body clocks may shift as they reach their teenage years - meaning they want to get up later not because they are lazy but because they are biologically programmed to do”. The biological clock of a teen does not correspond well with the schools’ starting times, and when a student is forced to wake up too early they are neglecting crucial parts of their sleep. In order to align better with teenagers’ internal clocks, schools should start at later times, which in return would result in the improvement of learning, concentration, and health.
Students commit a large portion of their day towards school and it would be a more enjoyable process if schools were to start at a more seemly time. For the general welfare of students in public education, the school start times should be moved to later times. The benefits include better grades, fewer absences, safer roads, and increased attentiveness. There is additional potential to starting schools later, such as the reduction of risk in athletics, less depressive symptoms, and a decrease in the likelihood of participating in violence. The further possibilities can only be explored as more schools start pushing back their start times and in the idealistic future, schools will hopefully start to implement a delay to start times as it is better for everyone.