WHY SCHOOL SHOULD START LATER
By Rhett Parker
Waking up early in the morning for school can be a miserable experience that all high
school students have gone through. Davis high school starts class at 7:30 in the morning, which
many students believe to be way too early. Should school start later, or should it keep its time?
There are arguments for both sides. Some reasons for keeping school at the same time are that it
prepares kids for waking up early for jobs, it also gives more time for learning without having to
keep kids at school for so late. Some reasons in favor for starting school later are that it would
potentially be better for the student’s health, it would cause kids to be more productive, and even
the teachers would benefit from it. Although there might be a few selling points for the argument
of keeping the time that school starts, the arguments against the normal time are much stronger.
Davis School District would be smart to implement a new schedule for school that starts at a
later time.
Starting school too early can have a negative effect on student’s health. Horacio de la
Iglesia, who is a professor of biology at the University of Washington, states that “To ask a teen
to be up and alert at 7:30 a.m. is like asking an adult to be active and alert at 5:30 a.m.”
Teenagers are simply different than adults. Teens need more sleep than adults do. The American
Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that teenagers should receive 8-10 hours of sleep.
Most students at Davis High are for sure not getting 8-10 hours of sleep. If a student’s wants to
get up at 6:00 A.M in order to be up and ready for school at 7:30 A.M. then that would mean
they would have to be asleep by 10:00 P.M. which is very hard to do for students. The school
district should understand that students have a hard time getting to sleep before 10:00 since they
have lots of other things that they need to do and take care of along with all the homework that
they are assigned at school, which usually forces them to stay up all night doing. Homework is
making the problem even worse. There are all these reasons that teenagers can’t get to sleep
early along with the fact that they already can’t sleep due to stress about school in the morning
and all the assignments that they need to get done as well. Teenagers who get a lack of sleep can
often experience a lack of concentration, mood swings, drowsy driving, depression, and more
negative effects. All these effects are things that the schools shouldn’t want their students
experiencing if they care about them whatsoever.
Fellow student of Davis High, Isabelle Koenig has this to say about whether or not our
school should get a new schedule “Yes, I think school should start at a later time. High school
starts earlier than Jr High and elementary but the younger kids are almost always up and have
more energy than the high school students. Because the start times are based off of the bus
schedules, they should switch the order and have elementary start earlier than Jr High, and High
school start at the latest time.” Switching around the schedules of the schools could very well be
a solution to the problem. High schoolers are already having to stay up later than the elementary
kids anyways. Another solution could be having all the schools start at once, this way the High
school students could drop off their younger siblings at school while they are on their way to
their own school. Having the older kids drop off their younger siblings would eliminate stress
from a lot of parents that are trying to get their kids to school. If you have it set up where all the
kids are on the same schedule than this can make it easier for picking up all the kids as well.
More sleep means more productivity in class for teenagers. If teens get more sleep, then
they can get more energized and ready to participate in class. Because a lack of good sleep can
Waking up early in the morning for school can be a miserable experience that all high
school students have gone through. Davis high school starts class at 7:30 in the morning, which
many students believe to be way too early. Should school start later, or should it keep its time?
There are arguments for both sides. Some reasons for keeping school at the same time are that it
prepares kids for waking up early for jobs, it also gives more time for learning without having to
keep kids at school for so late. Some reasons in favor for starting school later are that it would
potentially be better for the student’s health, it would cause kids to be more productive, and even
the teachers would benefit from it. Although there might be a few selling points for the argument
of keeping the time that school starts, the arguments against the normal time are much stronger.
Davis School District would be smart to implement a new schedule for school that starts at a
later time.
Starting school too early can have a negative effect on student’s health. Horacio de la
Iglesia, who is a professor of biology at the University of Washington, states that “To ask a teen
to be up and alert at 7:30 a.m. is like asking an adult to be active and alert at 5:30 a.m.”
Teenagers are simply different than adults. Teens need more sleep than adults do. The American
Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that teenagers should receive 8-10 hours of sleep.
Most students at Davis High are for sure not getting 8-10 hours of sleep. If a student’s wants to
get up at 6:00 A.M in order to be up and ready for school at 7:30 A.M. then that would mean
they would have to be asleep by 10:00 P.M. which is very hard to do for students. The school
district should understand that students have a hard time getting to sleep before 10:00 since they
have lots of other things that they need to do and take care of along with all the homework that
they are assigned at school, which usually forces them to stay up all night doing. Homework is
making the problem even worse. There are all these reasons that teenagers can’t get to sleep
early along with the fact that they already can’t sleep due to stress about school in the morning
and all the assignments that they need to get done as well. Teenagers who get a lack of sleep can
often experience a lack of concentration, mood swings, drowsy driving, depression, and more
negative effects. All these effects are things that the schools shouldn’t want their students
experiencing if they care about them whatsoever.
Fellow student of Davis High, Isabelle Koenig has this to say about whether or not our
school should get a new schedule “Yes, I think school should start at a later time. High school
starts earlier than Jr High and elementary but the younger kids are almost always up and have
more energy than the high school students. Because the start times are based off of the bus
schedules, they should switch the order and have elementary start earlier than Jr High, and High
school start at the latest time.” Switching around the schedules of the schools could very well be
a solution to the problem. High schoolers are already having to stay up later than the elementary
kids anyways. Another solution could be having all the schools start at once, this way the High
school students could drop off their younger siblings at school while they are on their way to
their own school. Having the older kids drop off their younger siblings would eliminate stress
from a lot of parents that are trying to get their kids to school. If you have it set up where all the
kids are on the same schedule than this can make it easier for picking up all the kids as well.
More sleep means more productivity in class for teenagers. If teens get more sleep, then
they can get more energized and ready to participate in class. Because a lack of good sleep can
cause kids to be less concentrated, then you would think that the district would want to prevent a
lack of sleep due to the fact that having students concentrate and pay good attention in class is a
vital part of the learning environment. Schools are supposed to foster a good learning
environment, so why don’t they push back school later so that kids can concentrate more? There
is no clear answer to this question. You would think that the school would be eager to do
anything they can to get more student concentration and productivity. Everyone knows how
moody teens can be. When teens are feeling moody, they don’t want to listen to an adult telling
them what to do. Pushing school back would make the teens happy which means they aren’t
being moody and rebellious.
Not just students would love if school started later but teachers would too. Pushing back
the start time of school would make for happy employees and students. Teachers can do their job
much better if they don’t have to deal with sleepy, moody, and unconcentrated kids. Ask any
teacher, none of them want to be up and ready to start class at 7:30 A.M, and neither do the kids.
It would be a win, win scenario for teachers and students if school started later. If you don’t want
to push school back for just the kids, then do it for your employees as well.
School should benefit the students. We are the future generation; shouldn’t we receive
better conditions for our health and a better environment for our productivity? Starting school at
a later time would be a benefit to everyone including the teachers, parents, and students. What is
stopping this from happening? Why wont the Davis School District implement a new and better
school schedule? Do it for the good of our education. It is the districts job to better suite our
education, so the Davis School District needs to do their job by pushing school back later.
vital part of the learning environment. Schools are supposed to foster a good learning
environment, so why don’t they push back school later so that kids can concentrate more? There
is no clear answer to this question. You would think that the school would be eager to do
anything they can to get more student concentration and productivity. Everyone knows how
moody teens can be. When teens are feeling moody, they don’t want to listen to an adult telling
them what to do. Pushing school back would make the teens happy which means they aren’t
being moody and rebellious.
Not just students would love if school started later but teachers would too. Pushing back
the start time of school would make for happy employees and students. Teachers can do their job
much better if they don’t have to deal with sleepy, moody, and unconcentrated kids. Ask any
teacher, none of them want to be up and ready to start class at 7:30 A.M, and neither do the kids.
It would be a win, win scenario for teachers and students if school started later. If you don’t want
to push school back for just the kids, then do it for your employees as well.
School should benefit the students. We are the future generation; shouldn’t we receive
better conditions for our health and a better environment for our productivity? Starting school at
a later time would be a benefit to everyone including the teachers, parents, and students. What is
stopping this from happening? Why wont the Davis School District implement a new and better
school schedule? Do it for the good of our education. It is the districts job to better suite our
education, so the Davis School District needs to do their job by pushing school back later.
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