School start time one pager

I chose to read an article by The Atlantic, titled: “The Curse of America’s Illogical School-Day Schedule”. I chose to read this article because it reminded me about what is going on at my school right now. We are revisiting the bell schedule and deciding if it needs to be changed or updated. I figured that reading this article would open my eyes more to why we may or may not need a school schedule change. 

The first paragraph of this article talks about how students wake up early every morning to the sounds of their alarms going off. It talks about how the average start for high schools is 7:59, and that teens have to disturb their natural sleep patterns to attend school every day. I can relate to the alarms, because I usually set fifteen of them every day, just to make sure I don’t oversleep.  

The article continues to say, that the school schedule is often a huge inconvenience to parents, as school schedules usually end two hours before the American workday. This leaves parents the chore of finding afterschool care for their children or having to change their work schedule to accommodate. I can relate to this also, because on Fridays, I'm often left waiting at the school until my father gets off work and can come pick me up. I am not in the bus range and don’t have any other way of getting home.  

The article then suggests that that “It could start later, and it could go longer” They say that this would accommodate to the fact that the majority of teens don’t naturally fall asleep before 11 and starting later could allow teens to get the full nine hours of sleep they should already be getting. As I read this, I started to consider what ending later could mean for everyone. For example: I work after school from 4 to 7 most days, and ending later would making working less, if not completely, unachievable. 

The article then continues to reveal a strong point, both the Centers for Disease Control and Protection, and the American Medical Association believe that sleep deprivation has “negative effects on students’ health and academics” Which could be further explained by saying that if students got more sleep, their grades at school would improve. But, for students to be able to get more sleep, school start times would need to be pushed back.  

Another point to keep in mind would be after school sports. Sports schedules would have to be completely changed for the new schedule to work. Many parents are very against the new schedule for that reason, one father states that it would change “’Every practice and every single game’”.  

Finally, there is one main issue the article brought up that is important to consider: buses. Many school districts do not have enough buses to transport elementary, middle, and high school students later. Therefore, middle and high school students must go to school earlier, so young children are not stuck waiting for the bus in the dark. I think this plan makes total sense, as if there are not enough buses to transport everyone, the older students should go to school earlier.