Reasons Why School Should Start Later

Are you ever tardy due to the fact that you can't wake up early enough to get to school on time? Or couldn’t concentrate because you were too tired? These are responses that were given from students themselves. I think school should start later because it will reduces tardiness, it also improves grades, memory and attention. Along with that, it gives kids more sleep per night and reduced fatigue. I can relate to this topic because I know I, as a student, don't get enough sleep due to having a lot of activities after school and a lot of homework. It would really help if we got an extra hour or so of sleep at night.

First off, middle schools should start later because it will reduce tardiness and decrease students absences. To conduct some scientists research, a team from a Seattle school district did an experiment that delayed school hours from 7:50 A.M. to 8:45 A.M.. On the website https://www.fromthegrapevine.com/health/why-starting-school-later-improves-academic-results, it states “ what they found was that although most of the students went to bed around the same time, they were able to gain an average of 34 minutes of sleep per day. At one of the schools in the district, students were late an average of two fewer days and had two fewer absences per year than the year before.” At the end of the day, it actually reduces the amount of times they were late to school and it allowed them to finish their school work. For example, when I’m late to school and enter the class, I am completely lost since the lesson had already started. When it comes down to taking a test or an important assignment, it would be really complicated to understand how to do the assignment since being tardy became an obstacle to me. Whereas, if I were to be on time, that wouldn’t have became a problem.

Following that, starting school later gives kids more time to sleep in and have a better night sleep so they could be in a good mood the next morning. Kids in middle school have to get 8-10 hours of sleep but usually they go to bed around 11 and don't get that extra sleep they need to function right. The higher percentage of students do after school activities such as sports, clubs, and hobbies which causes them to not have much free time to do school work and that causes them stay up later as well. Most student athletes do school sports and after that they still go to their practices that end at around 7-9 which doesn’t give them enough time to do their homework or study for a test they would have. That also leads to kids staying up late just for school work. In the website ttps://www.sleepfoundation.org/articles/teens-and-sleep, it states “They are like zombies getting ready for school and find it hard to be alert and pay attention in class. Because they are sleep deprived, they are sleepy all day and cannot do their best.” At school some students be falling asleep in class because if the lack of sleep they have and can’t concentrate correctly and i have been through that myself. All you can think of is when is the next time you’re going to be able to take a nap or sleep and it’s not healthy for your brain.

Finishing up, it also improves alertness, memory, attention, and grades. In terms of grades, starting later in the day led to a 12% increase in the value-added number of students making good academic progress and getting better grades. It improves grades because it gives kids time to eat breakfast in the morning which most kids don’t do, due to not having time. And breakfast is the most important meal of the day and it makes your head function correctly. That leads to the students being more awake for school and in a better mood for school. On https://www.kappanonline.org/later-start-time-for-teens/, it says “Students were now awake the first hour of class, the principal reported fewer disciplinary incidents in the halls and lunchroom, and students reported less depression and feelings of greater efficacy.” Getting this one more hour of sleep would benefit by giving teachers and staff less stress of having to discipline us, we would probably get more work done, stay focused, and be on our best.

In conclusion, these reasons given to why schools must change their initiating timings, are all supported with experiments and students statements. As there failures and mainly successes, students overall will have better grades, increase in attendance, will get the required amount of sleep needed and will keep them awake throughout the school day. Make a change by allowing these individuals to make a difference in today’s schools.