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Kelsie Brooks

Mrs. Cramer

College Comp 1

24 March, 2017

Time For a Delay

"Teens are notorious night owls." (APA). For many middle and high school students

throughout the United States, the snooze button has become part of their morning routine. Is this

because teens are lazy? Of course not. School start times can wreak havoc on students. Without

being fully rested the teens are jeopardizing their focus, attendance and mental health, which in

turn, risks their success. Delaying middle and high school start times would be immensely

beneficial for student focus and overall wellbeing.

First, most of the taboo around school start times deals with sleep. "Teenagers don't get

enough sleep", "teenagers get too much sleep", "students are lazy"1. These things are said

constantly when justifying students grades and focus. Is any of it true? According to the

American Psychological Association, teens sleep-wake cycle is justified by biological and

physiological roots. There are two processes to govern the sleep-wake cycle: homeostatic drive

for sleep (Process S) and the circadian rhythm (Process C). They both greatly influence mood as

well as learning ability and occur around adolescence. From ages eleven to eighteen the

processes are considered to be the sleep phase. Theses processes explain teens habits to stay

awake later and wake up later, when given the opportunity. Teenagers need between eight to ten

1 Epizeuxis- figure of emphasis in which the same word is repeated two or more times.
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hours of sleep nightly to thrive in school. With the current schedule high school students get

anywhere between four to seven hours of sleep. Lack of sleep leads to a decrease in attendance,

mood regulation and the ability to focus and retain information. These are all essential functions

as a successful student. A study was carried out in Wake County, California to determine how

start times affect the performance of middle school students on standardized tests. (Edwards).

The results showed that standardized test scores increased by two percentage points in math and

one percentile point in reading, when start times were delayed by one hour. Considering that

teens do not compensate for waking at earlier hours by going to sleep earlier, the later beginning

of the school day obviously allows focus to be attainable. The studies look to be effective. If

school start times were to be later, teens could finally get a healthy amount of sleep, focus would

greatly improve and standardized tests scores could increase all over the United States.

Conversely, it could be argued that teens waking up early prepares them for the

responsibility of life after high school. Most of the students will be attending college and, or,

working soon. This requires them to wake at early hours and work long days, being forced to

maintain focus. However, the sleep-wake schedule changes at age eighteen; the age that most

students will graduate high school. The change indicates the end of the infamous sleep phase.

Young adults, ages eighteen through twenty-five, need seven to nine hours of sleep each night.

The amount of sleep required to fully function2 decreases after adolescence; going to sleep late

and waking up late is no longer a habit. Young adults are able to maintain focus and retain

information while ultimately getting less sleep. Also, in the adult world, there is more motivation

and pressure placed on the former students to create a stable life. Although they will have to get

2 Assonance- figure of repetition in which the same vowel sounds are used with different
consonants.
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jobs to support themselves, they will be getting paid to do so. Waking up earlier seems

worthwhile when there is a benefit in sight. Thus, teen sleep habits in high school will not affect

their adult responsibilities, if anything it will prepare them.

Next, having school begin a few hours later positively effects students moods and overall

wellbeing. Teens are generally more willing and excited to learn when the school day begins

later. In 2015 a high school experimented with delaying the start time by twenty minutes.

Although that is not much, it has shown success. Elise Brown Hughes is a parent of a teenage

boy at the high school and stated that the change has been better than expected. (George). She

states "his mornings are markedly better and he gets to school on time." There have also been

studies to show how students moods are more easy going. Being a high school student comes

with the stress of deadlines, overwhelming assignments, after school jobs, sports, clubs and of

course, drama. Many students can find this to be too much. When they have everything going on

at once it can be extremely overwhelming. Several high school students throughout the United

States suffer with depression. Whether it is due to a personal issue or not, school only adds on to

it.3 Starting school later in the day allows for the teens to have better time management and a

sense of control over their assignments and projects. If a student forgot to do their homework or

if they had to work the night before, they could voluntarily wake up earlier to finish it, as there

would be more time in the morning to do so. In summary, the later start time of school would

allow students to feel like there is less on their shoulders. Although the workload will not change,

the time difference will grant more sleep and the notion of less stress.

3 Pathos- an appeal to emotion, evokes pity

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On the other hand, many parents worry about the care of their younger children after they

get off of the bus in the evening. If high schools are starting later, the elementary schools will

essentially be switching schedules with the middle and high school students. This means that the

younger children will get off of the bus before the older ones. So who is going to be home to

keep an eye on them? Well, students lives revolve around school. Their jobs accommodate to the

school day and extra curricular activities are held after school to stay out of the way of education.

If such a change were to occur, the school would be able to put programs in place for the

children after school and provide a ride home at a later time. This may sound very unlikely,

however, several schools already have after school programs for things such as tutoring,

detention or clubs. The students that participate are able to have a bus to take them home. Not

only that, but with the current schedule, there are programs for younger students to be dropped

off at school, hours before the start time, so that the parents can make their commute to work.

Since schedules would be switching with the high school and elementary students, the same

programs would be available, only at a later time.

In conclusion, later school start times show obvious benefits. The concept has shown

success in several areas of the United States. Studies have been performed to prove that students'

standardized test scores increase and that student focus escalates. There are setbacks surrounding

the accommodations that this would require. However, the good immensely outweighs the bad.

Students would have less stress, there would be a lower rate of depression among teens, focus in

class would exceed what teachers are used to, grades and test scores would improve. All because

of a later school start time. It is apparent that delaying the start time of middle and high schools

will have an overwhelming benefit to the success of the students.

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"Do Schools Begin Too Early?" Education Next. N.p., 25 Dec. 2016. Web. 17 Mar. 2017.

George, Donna St. "Debate over School Start times Flares Anew." The Washington Post. WP
Company, 01 Jan. 2017. Web. 17 Mar. 2017.

Times, School Start. Later School Start Times Promote (n.d.): n. pag. Www.apa.org. Web.