First of all, high school students need 9 hours of sleep to perform at their full potential. Only 20% of high school students are getting 9 hours of sleep each school night. This leaves 80% not performing the best that they are able to perform. Teachers, superintendents, principals, etc put so much pressure on the students to get a 4.0 GPA, perfect test scores at the end of the year to make our school look good, to be so kind to everyone, etc...etc...etc...they need to stop being so ignorant and look at it from the students' perspective. During the years of transitioning from a child to an adult, our bodies make a change that alters are sleep patterns. The sleep patterns make it very difficult to fall asleep before 11 pm. Therefore, if we get the necessary 9 hours of sleep, we're sleeping until 8 am. That's basically sleeping right through first bell! If the start time gets delayed until 9 am, students can sleep from 11-8 and easily make it to school on time and also perform to the best of their abilities.
Students are falling asleep in class. I don't think I've ever gone through a full bell and not seen at least one student, whether it's myself or a peer, fall asleep mid-class. As lack of sleep builds up and we're forced to get up before dawn, our bodies have to make up for that lack of sleep somehow. Sleeping in class is what we resort to doing. Because students are either very tired or they're literally sleeping, it's impossible to concentrate in class which results in bad grades because we didn't learn what we're tested on. It seems to me like the school system doesn't care if the kids are learning or not, they just want to get through the day as quickly and easily as possible.
Attendance rates decrease as a result of early start times. Students are oversleeping because when all that lack of sleep adds up, their bodies simply don't allow them to awaken. They're either arriving tardy or completely blowing off the day all together. A later start time would help solve this problem. In 1996, the University of Minnesota enforced a rule where no classes could start before 8:45 am. Before that rule, they were aloud to start at 7:15. As a result of a later start time, their attendance rates went up by 8%. Now, 8% may not seem like a large percentage but get this: Over one school year, if Mason's attendance rates went up, about 50,000 more counts of attendance would be in place. Basically, 50,000 more kids at school over one school year!
Sleep deprivation comes with some health risks. These health risks aren't just a sore throat, an overnight cold, a 3-day stomach virus. These health risks are very major diagnostics such as: diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, fatigue & inactivity which all together, these things can lead to depression. All of these things can be solved by a later start time, but they can be solved once they're already in place. Every day that we have the school schedule that we have, these risks increase. How ignorant can our school system get?
The people that believe high school should stick with their start times bring up their opinions through two main points: students' sleep habits will adapt so they won't get any more sleep, and secondly that the students won't be prepared for the future in the work force because businesses start early. To address the first point, Idaho High School had a school year where they did a lot of studies to figure out the relationship between academic performance and sleep habits. One thing they did was start school one hour and 15 minutes later. 87% of the students reported getting at least one hour extra of sleep as a result of starting school later because they could sleep in. So, that proves the point wrong that that students will just adjust their sleep habits and go to bed later instead of going to bed at the same time and sleeping in later. To address the second point, what is not preparing students for the future is not allowing them to get a proper high school education! Students are getting C's when they're highly capable of getting A's because their bodies are not allowing them to perform to the best of their abilities, they're missing school, and they can't focus in class because too much sleep deprivation is taking place. That is what's not preparing us for the future! So many doors to opportunity are closed as a result of too early of schools start times yet our school tries to preach to us to keep as many doors to opportunity open as possible. Hey, um, preacher, do you realize you're the one that's closing a lot of our doors? I'm not saying students aren't responsible for themselves, but our school, with such an early start time, is putting us in a situation every single day where it's very hard to keep our A game on.
My last point is that when we start so early, we're waking up, arriving at school, and going through most of first bell all in the dark. It makes it very hard to awaken. With a later start time, we get up in the bright sun which makes it a lot easier to prepare for the day ahead of us.
Overall, with a later start time, our school environment would be a lot more productive, successful, and overall a better community. Many schools have realized how the benefits of starting school later greatly outweigh the benefits of having an early first bell. Our school needs to step out of our ignorance bubble and join the high-rising trend. Our first bell must be pushed back.
The video below basically sums up what I stated in my post, but if you're one that doesn't enjoy reading but does enjoy watching videos, just watch the video. It has the same message.
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