Persuasive Essay: Why Schools Should Start Later In High School

Improved Essays
Throughout the United States, five days out of a seven days a week, children have to wake up early in the morning and go to school. Those who have to ride the bus or travel a far distance from their school must wake up earlier than others. Many children across our country do not get enough rest; furthermore, the health of these students are at risk. Essentially, in order to make sure students are receiving an adequate education, we must make sure they are able to get the right amount of sleep at night. To do this, schools should start a few hours later than the typical time.
The purpose of going to school is to gain the education necessary to become successful in the real world. Most schools last roughly eight hours long. In addition, the eight hours include little to no breaks in between classes, and a lunch that is usually less than an hour long. Many children participate in after school activities, as well. This includes recreational and school sports, community participation, and jobs. Along with this, many teachers assign homework. After these after school activities, it is typical for a student to be worn out, as they may get home late in the evening. To have to stay up and then do homework is sometimes difficult, and many have to stay up late at
…show more content…
Since the amount of school work given by teachers per night differs, irregular patterns of sleep are present. According to an article from Clinical Medicine Insights that consists of a study containing high school students and its results, an irregularity in one’s sleep cycle may harm the quality of sleep they receive. By sleeping late at night, not sleeping well during this short period of time, and then having to go to school and be awake for a long period of time the following day, a person’s health may eventually begin to deteriorate. This shows the significance of gaining the necessary amount of sleep during the night

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Should School Start Later?

    • 1164 Words
    • 5 Pages

    What if you weren’t so tired in school? Imagine feeling energized and refreshed, ready to learn with your classmates all around you, happily talking about class and catching up with each other. School could be so much better. Therefore, the question is-- should schools have later starting times? In “Should School Start Later?”…

    • 1164 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Varley claims, “Other positive effects cited by researchers include better attendance, fewer tardiness, far fewer students falling asleep at their desks, more alert students more engaged in the learning process, less depression, fewer problems at home and among friends, enhanced school atmosphere, and fewer illnesses” (124). In other words, the list of the benefits includes changes in almost all areas that affect the mental and physical health of adolescents. In addition, Emily Richmond, in her article “Why School Should Start Later in the Morning”, argues, “Schools also saw the decrease in … substance abuse. Some even had a dramatic drop in teen car crashes” (1). In other words, even those areas that seemed not very connected to change in the sleep schedule had been affected by the change and in turn affected the lives of students.…

    • 1354 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Pediatrician Judith Owens, lead author of the policy statement, “School Start Times for Adolescents” stated that “adolescents who get enough sleep have a reduced risk of being overweight or suffering depression, are less likely to be involved in automobile accidents, and have better grades, higher standardized test scores and an overall better quality of life.” These are the goals for both the students and school districts, so making this change would benefit…

    • 504 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The two passages talk about if high schools should have an earlier or later start time and how it affects high school students. In the first article it talked about if high schools should start later to help sleepy teens. The second article talked about if high schools will keep earlier start times. In both articles the authors have their own point of view about their articles. In article one the author stated his claim about if high schools should start late to help sleepy teens.…

    • 632 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Beep Beep Beep!!” imagine hearing this at 5 or 6 in the morning well most middle and high school kids have too. I believe that the starting time for school should be pushed back later in the morning. In the article entitled “ Should School Start Later?” also the short video “ Should Students Start School Later in the Morning?…

    • 562 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Did you know that only one in every five middle and high schools start after 8:30 A.M, yet the American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended that middle and high schools start after 8:30 A.M. Students that don’t get enough sleep are more likely to be overweight, not engage in daily physical activity, suffer from depressive symptoms, engage in unhealthy risk behaviors such as drinking, smoking tobacco, and using illicit drugs, and perform poorly in school. American Academy should start later because students are more likely to have bad things happen to them, and students cannot learn well when their brains are still asleep. Most students that don’t get enough sleep engage in things that are unhealthy. The CDC states that students who don’t get enough sleep are more likely to be overweight, not engage in daily physical activity, suffer from depressive symptoms, engage in unhealthy risk behaviors such as drinking, smoking tobacco, and using illicit drugs, and perform poorly in school. Students that got about nine hours of sleep are more likely to improve their health, mindset, and academic results.…

    • 585 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Mathis Moore Too early There are plenty of risks caused by not getting enough sleep for your age, such as being more likely to be overweight, depressive symptoms, and perform poorly in school and activities. That being said, the CDC reports that less than 1 in 5 school in the United States start before 8:30, which is what they recommend schools start at. While teachers would benefit from the extra sleep themselves, they also would see students be more attentive in the morning because they would not be as tired. Ergo, Schools should start later than 8:30 because students and teachers would benefit in health from getting extra sleep, and would benefit from being more attentive and awake in the morning.…

    • 879 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    High school students are expected to sit through 7 hours of instruction, complete 2-4 hours of homework, have a social life, be active in their family, and get the recommended 8-10 hours of sleep all in one day. Now with studies showing teenagers experience a change in their internal clocks, there has to be some adjustment made. Students are having a harder time waking up and falling asleep early enough to be prepared for school. To help students cope with this change in their internal clocks; high schools should begin later, and end later in the day. Hearing an alarm clock go off at 6:30 in the morning is an awful and discouraging sound.…

    • 506 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In an experiment by Randy Gardner in which he sees how long he can stay awake (Hudson, 11), he found some surprising effects. On day four of eleven, he began imagining that he really was the San Diego Chargers running back, and one point he even thought a street sign was a person. Additionally, he was moody, paranoid, and forgetful, all things you would not want to be during school hours, or at any time whatsoever. Although nobody is going to be awake for multiple days on a regular basis, To cap it off, not getting enough sleep can change the quality of your schoolwork for the worse. From “Should School Start Later?”,”studies show that well-rested teens get better grades, have higher standardized test scores, and miss fewer days of school”.…

    • 561 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In an article called “Backgrounder: Later School Start Times”, the author states that kids need a lot of sleep for performance, health, and brain development. Research shows that kids need 8 or 9 hours of sleep each night. Anne Wheaton says “getting enough sleep is important for students’ health, safety, and academic performance.” Timing at School.…

    • 567 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A new warning has just been issued to students: “The tiredness that you feel in the morning may not be your own fault but a product of your everyday habits. Some habits that lead to your tiredness could involve your tablets, phones, video games, or even your after school job!” In the past, children, teens, and even teachers have faced tiredness at least once throughout the day, and many want a solution. Teens face many obstacles when trying to acquire enough hours of sleep, and this problem often leads to a common solution of starting school at a later time in the day, but this solution is not one that solves all problems. There are many scientific details behind starting school later.…

    • 1121 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Too Cool for Later School “RRRRING” The bell screamed and I had to scurry home. It was wintertime and pitch black. The street lamps were no match for the darkness. My mom was at work and I had soccer at 4:30 and I practiced until 5:30.…

    • 748 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There are a lot of good effects if school started later. Many teenagers would agree that getting up early in the morning is stressful. School should start later because students would be more focused and less stressed and get better grades and have less of a chance of getting depression with more sleep. We will be arguing that school will start later in the morning. One reason schools should start later is that students can get extra sleep.…

    • 546 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Because of longer school days, students tend to be too tired to concentrate in class because they are too exhausted. Students get up at 6 o’clock in the morning to get ready for school. They arrive at school at 8 o’clock in the morning, and will be at 3:45-4:00 o’clock in the afternoon. Some students will have after-school activities and it is a maximum of two hours. Students are required to do homework for 2-3 hours or more a day, depends on the subject and the material.…

    • 373 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    People today would like to have shortened school days. I would like to say that I agree with some of those statements. It’s not that I don't like school it's the fact that I agree that people waste too much time in their classes and don't get any homework done. For example, if a student is give a in class assignment, they will not do it because I don't know if it's the fact that they are too lazy to search for the answers or if they just get bored of classes.…

    • 576 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays