Should high schools start an hour later?

Either side brings a valid case, but in the battle of school starting times, the facts stack up against allowing them to remain the same rather than bumping them up an hour and/or switching start times with elementary schools. Typically, high schools start around 7:35 am, a time where many students would rather be getting up instead of trudging off to their first class. An extra hour of sleep, many say, would be beneficial to students emotions and academic performances. Indeed, this has been seen to be a proven fact. Eastham, MA conducted an experiment in the change of start times in order to find some sort of validity to moving start times. A 53% drop in the number of failing grades was presented between the two times, as well as the numbers of D's and F's dropping from 597 to 368. Students with suspensions dropped severely in numbers as well, plummeting from 166 to 19. Something else that also presses the fact of the matter even farther is the fact that many younger children tend to wake up at early times such as 530 or 6 am, whereas teenagers would much rather wake up later in the morning. Suggestions have been made to switch start times between high schoolers and elementary students in order to accommodate both wants and needs of each age group.

This article mainly aims at pulling readers in to the idea of the abundant benefits brought forth by changing the time in which a school beings session. By providing staggering statistics, the author allows the reader to be informed of all of the increasing benefits of this change, ranging from academic performance to social skills in the learning environment. Evidently, this brings forth a strong argument as to why high schools should begin at a later time.





"Let teens hit the snooze"
http://bangordailynews.com/2012/01/23/opinion/let-teens-hit-the-snooze/