Argumentative Essay on School Start Times
Kids all across America are waking up 5 days a week at the crack of dawn to get ready for school. Studies show that adolescents need about 8.5 hours of sleep every night. Between after school activities, work and homework most kids don’t go to bed until extremely late and then get up in the morning only a few hours later for school.
“Sleep deprived students are less alert, less able to learn, cause more traffic accidents and are more prone to depression and obesity.” (“Doctors Agree: School Shouldn’t Start so Early in the Morning!” Saloncom RSS. N.p., n.d.
Web. 18 May 2015.) But, with school starting later, it gets out later. Pushing back extra-curricular activities and jobs, giving them less time to do homework and causing them to stay up later. However, if a later start was given to high school students there would be a huge impact on the school district, transportation and family situations.
Many parents wouldn’t be able to get their kids to school if it started later. School bus schedules and other transportations would have to change. “School districts would need to delay start times for the elementary schools or invest in hiring additional bus drivers to transport the high school students.” (“Pros and Cons of Later School Start Times.” Sleeping Resources.
N.p., n.d. Web. 17 May 2015.
) If a bus driver has to drop off students at the high school and then pick up elementary school kids, the delayed start times would effect that. Delayed start times would have to be implemented at elementary schools or additional buses would need to be hired. “to 57,000 high school students it would costs tax payers about $4.9 million, with most of the funding going towards hiring additional buses.”( “School Districts Weigh Pros, Cons of Later Start times for High Schools.
” MultiBrief:. N.p., n.d.
Web. 05 May 2015.) Starting school later would also cause problems with extracurricular activities such as sports practices, music lessons, etc. Students with jobs would also have to work later hours since school would get out later and so would practices. Many students need jobs to pay for college tuition and it would affect employers who hire teens. If students are working and practicing later, it would give them less time to do homework.
While getting enough sleep is important, it’s the student’s responsibility to get the amount of sleep they need. Students are mature enough to plan their responsibilities and activites accordingly. Many students make the decision of staying on their phone or watching television all night instead of sleeping. If schools started later it would cause more problems than it would fix them. It would cost tax payers millions of dollars and complicate family schedules.
Students are responsible for their time management skills. It would also cause school to get out later in the day making practices go until late at night and students with jobs would have no time for homework by the time they got home, which would make them have to get up earlier in the morning to do it or stay up until very late, which would just defeat the purpose of school starting later
