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Emily Zawatski

Mrs. Cramer

College Composition Period 7

24 March 2017

Way too Early!

School is made out to be a fun learning environment, but is it causing more damage than

shown? Students seem to have worse attendance as they get older and they progress through

school due to the change their brain undergoes during puberty. Schools have the opposite start

times then what is beneficial to the change in teens' brain. Elementary schools usually begin later

in the day compared to middle and high schools which are filled with children going through

puberty. The start times play a large role in the performance of students, the attendance, and

mental health. Later start times would allow students to absorb more information and would

improve their mental health.

Firstly, students should be able to study at home more if schools start earlier and get out

earlier. The amount of time at home during day hours, even after sports and afterschool activities

is more than enough time to put more effort into studying the information taught throughout the

school day. Studying more would increase the students' test scores and ability to comprehend and

excel throughout school. This would improve students GPAS if they spent less time watching

television and more time reviewing the information and doing the homework given during their

classes. Teenagers are privileged and want to take the easy way out without putting in the work

necessary.
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On the contrary, students that begin school later have been proven to have higher test

scores and a higher completed homework rate. Studies done with the Wake County, North

Carolina school system has recorded the scores of the students throughout 2 school years. The

teens have taken the end of the year tests and the results have been compared to one another and

averaged to construct the data. The research shows that a one-hour school start time delay

increases the math section of the standardized test by two percentage points. The reading portion

of the test was increased by one and a half percent with students in the same school. The article

"Do Schools Begin Too Early?" states "I find that students who start school one hour later watch

12 fewer minutes of television per day and spend 9 minutes more on homework per week,

perhaps because students who start school later spend less time at home alone." The nine minutes

could be the cause of the increase of the standardized tests, but the increase occurred after a later

start time was put in place. The slow but steady progress that a one-hour delay has made to the

scores could make a large difference in the long run.

Secondly, high schools and middle schools start earlier than elementary schools. Teens

seem to have much worse attendance then children in lower grade classes and elementary

schools. The lack of sleep in teen affects information retention and cognition, student behavior

and classroom conflict, attendance issues, and mood regulation. Plenty debate that falling asleep

earlier would increase the attention and attendance of students throughout secondary schools.

Falling asleep earlier increases the hours of sleep necessary for teens and result in the

improvement of students during school time. The start times of schools should not change to

work around the wants of unmotivated teenagers.

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To counteract, high schools start from anywhere from 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. and

elementary schools begin between 8:15 a.m. and 9:15 a.m.. Teens usually begin puberty during

their middle school and high school years of school, during puberty the body and mind of the

person goes through several changes; one of them is the change of their natural sleep cycle. It has

been scientifically proven that adolescent teens need more sleep than younger children and older

adults. The sleep cycle is disturbed because the homeostasis drive for sleep, known as Process S,

and the circadian rhythm, known as Process C. These processes control your tiredness and when

your body decides it is ready to sleep which shift the sleep schedule of teens going through their

natural body changes. Process S weakens causing the body to be more tired and Process C shifts

to falling asleep later in the evening due to natural changes within the body. The article "Later

School Start times Promote Adolescent Well-Being" states "Process S and Process C heavily

influence mood and learning abilities. While they are interconnected, fixing an issue with one

does not mean that an issue with the other is resolved." The school start times effect this because

while teens are falling asleep later theyre waking up earlier which result in a lack of sleep. The

lack of sleep has an abundant amount of negative effects such as; mood swings, depression, lack

of concentration, and an abundant number of other issues. These consequences can affect the

grades and actions of the students experiencing these negative effects.

To continue, a later start of school times has shown that it has increased the attendance

rates. Studies that have been done in several states including; Connecticut, Missouri, Rhode

Island, these states have tested the theory of later start times. The results show the number of

hours adolescent teens have increased and resulted in an increase in attendance and a decrease in

disciplinary action within the schools. The article 'Later School Start Times Promote Adolescent

Well-Being' states "Teens are notorious night owls generally, they go to bed late in the evening
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and, when given the opportunity, wake up late in the morning. This tendency has biological and

physiological roots. The abundant amount of schools having done these studies have also found

an increase in the students' attention and a decrease in the number of students sleeping during

class. The schools data has shown little to no disadvantage in the results of starting secondary

schools later in the day compared to earlier.1 "Later School Start Times Promote Adolescent

Well-Being" states "The optimal amount of sleep for adolescents is approximately 9 hours

nightly. Surveys show that, while younger children generally get enough sleep, by early

adolescence, most do not; this trend continues to worsen throughout the teenage years." The

results of the adequate amount of sleep is beneficial to their memory and learning, emotional

regulation, mental health and wellbeing, and their body mass index and weight control. Delaying

school times would help students focus more, cause less stress, and get an adequate resulting in a

happy and healthy teen throughout their school years.

Schools that start one hour later could have a huge effect on the school system in general.

The times for the school should be switched for the younger and older children, the younger ones

should go to school earlier than the older children going through puberty. Elementary schools

middle schools and high schools2 offer many benefits by starting later in the day, and thats an

understatement.3 The adolescent teens should not have to be punished or blamed for being late

and miserable during school because what their bodies naturally do. There are numerous

amounts of benefits that studies have supported and proved about schools beginning later for

1 Synecdoche: A word that stands for something as a whole

2 Polysyndeton: The use of a number of conjunctions close together

3 Understatement: Expresses an idea that is less than it actually is

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older kids in middle and high school. Later start times would allow students to be able to pay

more attention and absorb more information while improving their mental and physical health.

Edwards, Finley. "Do schools begin too early? The effect of start times on students

achievement" Education Next 12.3 (2012): 52+. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 13 Mar.

2017.

Hansen, Martha, et al. "The impact of school daily schedule on adolescent sleep." Pediatrics,
June 2005, p. 1555+. Student Resources in Context. Web. 13 Mar. 2017.
"Later School Start Times Promote Adolescent Well-Being." American Psychological

Association. Web. 13 Mar. 2017

St. George, Donna. "Debate over school start times flares anew." The Washington Post. 1 January

2017. Web. 13 Mar. 2017

Understatement: Expresses an idea that is less 3