Are we starting schools too early?

[Admin]

CBS Article

Each morning I get to wake up at 6am, and I know I am lucky because there are some of you who get up earlier than that. Every afternoon I get to leave school at 4:25, and I know I am lucky because many of you stay for activities well after that. There have been several studies recently that have followed the sleep/productivity styles of the American teenager. These studies, one of which is mentioned in the article, prove that teens need far more sleep than originally believed: 9-10 hours. How many of you get 10 hours of sleep a night? 9 hours? 5? We want to be healthy is so many ways. I will have this free range chicken dinner with the kale grown in upstate—no antibiotics, no steroids. I will work out 6 times a week. I will meditate to distress. But we won’t sleep. And we don’t let our children sleep. Schools having been starting earlier in the day in order to accommodate the growing population, but this practice is unacceptable. Schools should start later to allow students to get well needed rest.

If students have more rest, there is a tremendous game change when it comes to productivity. This rise in productivity will lead to many positive transformations. Kids will complete their homework more frequently because they will be less forgetful, be able to participate more in class because they won’t be so lethargic, and just be more present.

[3JulianG]

While this problem does not affect me because I live very close to school (I wake up at 7:10), starting school at 8:00 am for a 8 or longer hour school day is definitely excessive. LaGuardia High School is a dual curriculum program, so its hours and days will be longer than a regular high school. If we start our days 30-60 minutes later in the morning, our days will run 30-60 minutes later. Even though this change would be city wide, our high school would not be 100% benefiting from it. Students who live in far places such as Staten Island, which might as well be a galaxy far far away, would be taking their ride home which is comprised of 1 ferry, 2 trains, 3 buses, and 4 riddles when it is dark out. Our hours would stay the same, just shifted. In addition, who is to say that us very organized, self disciplined, and experts at time management teenagers would take advantage of this. Not only do most of us stay up until midnight and later on a regular school night, but wasting this extra time in the morning is more than likely. School starting at 8:40 can easily be interpreted as going to sleep 40 minutes later than when school started at 8:00, when it should be an extra 40 minutes of sleep by going to sleep at the same time as our current schedule. Sleep is extremely important, that is an undisputed fact. Although schools do start too early, starting it later might not fix the problem.

[3ajesse]

From a person who also has to wake up at 6 am, although Staten Island folk still have it worse, school starts too early. Even 30 or 60 minutes can really improve LaGuardia student’s lives. Being a dance major means that I dance for 3 hours Monday through Friday, trying to keep myself 100% in all academics and dance are practically impossible. Teachers also act as though that’s the only class we have, though that’s a different subject, the point is trying to complete all of the homework with the few hours left in the day is killer. I find that I consistently stay up until 12, 1, 2 in the morning trying to get everything done and then having to wake up a few hours later just to start over again. This vicious cycle is only going to get worse with the increase of difficulty in classes. Sadly that being said if we start later our day would continue until about 5 p.m every week day. Then those Staten Island folk would be getting home protruding into the night and that would also be quite unfair. Also consider that starting an hour later, ending an hour later, means that our cycle is practically the same just an hour later in the day. The only way we’d get more sleep starting an hour later would be if we cut our day short, such as getting out at 4 rather than 5. Consider this; we are at this school for the arts so yes the early school start is annoying but we get to do what we love every day. That should count for something.

[6hkaterina]

I personally have noticed that my body only needs about 30 more minutes of sleep than what it's getting. A few days ago, I fell asleep at 10:30 and forgot to set my alarm. Normally, I'd wake up at 5:45 so that I have enough time to sit around and waste time, however, that day I woke up naturally at 6:15. As a result of that extra 30 minutes of sleep, I didn't need to stand around and wake up, and I actually went the whole day fully awake and aware in every class. While starting school later would definitely help, I feel like we are mostly at fault for going to bed late. When I go home, I move all devices connected to the world away from me and I sit down to study. While most of my friends are up until 11 or 12am finishing their studies, I need an hour and a half at the most and maybe 2 and a half if I have an exam or essay. This gives me time to relax after school, yet go to bed early and wake up on time and be alert and awake. So while I feel like school starting later could definitely help, I feel like we as teenagers are at fault for our sleepiness as well.

[10nangie]

I definitely think we are starting school too early. I wake up every morning at 6:00 am to get to school by the first bell.I usually sleep about 5 hours a night. Leaving home earlier than my parents and coming home later than them, I get very stressed out and exhausted. Junior year is one of the most important years in high school because colleges look at our gpa's and test scores and are making sure we help our community.Students need to get enough sleep to be able to stay awake and absorb information in class. Some students who come late to first period are yelled at by teachers, who say that they should either go to bed earlier, or wake up earlier. Train delays and other issues do not even come into attention. Many students taking AP classes are not able to go to bed early due to loads of homework, tests, and projects. Going to this specific school, kids have to practice vocal, dance, drama, and music after school as well. In addition, since LaGuardia is an arts school, its day is much longer than that of regular schools. Classes end at 4:10 and some students have to stay after school for clubs. This plus the time it takes to get home (for many it takes one hour or longer by train, ferry, or bus) gives students very little time to do homework, unless they stay up all night. I personally think school should start later for the sake of our health and future.

[10hdakembay]

I understand everyone's viewpoints, but I personally don't want school to start earlier. Starting school at an earlier time would mean that you could get up a little later, but on the flip side you would get out of school even later. Many people already made the point that we attend Laguardia so our school day is already two periods longer than kids that go to a normal public school. So if you add on an extra thirty to sixty minutes to our current dismissal time of 4:10, we would get out in between 4:40 and 5:10. Furthermore many Laguardia students have after school activities such as, sports, band, chorus, and dance. I know first hand how tough this is because I'm on the track team, and there were many days where practice would go until 6:30. By the time I got home it would be 7:30 and I had a ridiculous amount of homework requiring my attention and multiple test to study homework. By the time I finished all this, or just gave up, it was midnight. The next morning I would have to get up at six and do it all again, furthermore I was apparently luck, because while I got six hours of sleep many of my friends complained about getting only four. If school started later I would probably get even less sleep, because now after school activities would run even later. I believe the only solution to sleep deprivation is to decrease the amount of homework. I also find it ironic how many teachers say how they want their students to study what they learned that day for JUST fifteen minutes. If a student did this for every class the studying time would add up to at least an hour, plus the homework we are expected to do and practice our talent. Whenever teachers suggest this I just shake my head at them like they are crazy. So in conclusion I am strongly against school days starting later, but completely for teacher's decreasing the amount of homework they give.

[3bisabella]

My answer to this is yes and no.
I feel that I start school way too early going to LaGuardia, only because I have to wake up early (5 a.m.). However, I made this conscious choice of going to a school that required me to get up this early. On another point, if we started school later, we would most definitely leave later, which is even worse for going to school at Laguardia because of our workload and how long it takes for some kids to get home.
I also think that 8:00 am is not necessarily an absurd time to go to school. Speaking that most jobs start at 8 or 9 a.m., it prepares us and puts students on a schedule so that when we get out of school, we will have no problem waking up at those times.

[10wweronika]

To be honest, I've always felt that we don't get enough sleep. Not only in schools like LaGuardia, but in regular schools too.

In my middle school, first period started at 10:45am and 9th, ended at 4pm. It may sound a bit crazy, maybe even insane, but when I think about it, I definitely miss this system.
What I realize now, is that back when I got more sleep, my life quality was so much better. I not only got a lot of sleep that I needed, but also had time to do something fun before school (if i Felt like it).
I realized that socially wise, it was so much easier to even communicate with people when i was actually awake and able to listen. I think that sometimes we forget that sleep affects more than just our energy level.

[10BEthan]

To me, the issue of starting school at the almost ungodly time it starts at presently is not the most pressing matter for our school system. After-school time for students is extremely undervalued and with a school day ending at around 4PM for most students at LaGuardia, finding time to sufficiently practice their talent and study for academics is an ongoing struggle. In my opinion, starting school days earlier to let school end earlier in the day would be more beneficial than our current system because students would have more time to be equally productive academically and artistically.

I do, however, think that walking outside of my apartment building while it is still dark is slightly depressing, so I understand why people who live in Staten Island or Queens would completely object to starting school any earlier than it is starting already.

[10channah]

I can honestly say that school starts too early. Waking up when it is still dark out is difficult and a struggle. I always find myself having trouble focusing during my first and second period, which deprives me of learning the material in those classes. I also have gym second period and never feel the energy to try. Normally, I am just getting hungry to eat breakfast that period. On the other hand though, I think starting school early is better than starting later and ending later as well. By the end of the day, especially in the winter when it is almost dark out when we get out of school, it is depressing to notice that the whole day has gone by sitting in classrooms and then it is time to go do homework. Also, it is said that for every hour of sleep you get before midnight feels like and counts as two hours per one hour of sleep. If we ended later, we would be up doing homework until even later. Instead, by starting earlier, we can finish homework earlier and then get what feels like double the hours of sleep before midnight. It also is hard to get up in the morning, but if we slept a couple hours later, I feel we would all show up to school late and still want to sleep even more.

[3nkayla]

Schools definitely start too early in the morning, at a time when most of us are half asleep in class and not retaining a lot of the information given to us. If we started later, we could either have a longer sleep and be less tired in school, or have more time after we wake up to ACTUALLY wake up and not be so tired anymore. We aren’t able to have this option though, and not paying attention in class is one of the largest issues of a student leading to failure, and usually due to lack of sleep. Not only are we not able to focus, but also not getting enough sleep is so unhealthy to the human body. It is said that in order to function and properly develop (for children especially), at least 10 hours of sleep is a must. The fact that many students get an average of about 6 hours is ridiculous, and we would have to go to bed at 8 or 9 in order to get a good sleep. Many LaGuardia kids don’t even get home until that time and they have homework on top of that, leaving many kids with less than 6 hours of sleep. It is crazy to me that schools expect so much of us, when we are always physically and mentally drained.

[6ReyesKate]

I completely agree that schools start way too early. I wake up at around 5:30 every morning to make it in time for first period and I NEVER get to see the sun. Literally, I leave at the crack of dawn, when the sun hasn’t risen yet and leave the city just as the sun sets. When I get home I am faced with 4 hours worth of homework including practicing for SAT’s and working on projects. This leaves me the only person awake in my family struggling to finish everything so I can at least get a good 5 Hours of sleep. But 5 hours is not enough, teenagers need at least 9 Hours to fully function and I am getting about half of that each night. I find myself dozing off during my first period class and as a result I don’t retain as much information as I would if I were able to sleep a little bit longer. Most importantly 5 hours of sleep is very dangerous for dance majors, when we’re sleep deprived our body physically moves without the brain fully understanding the movement, which will result in injuries. It is vital for me to get plenty of sleep in order to dance 6 hours every day. Adding on the fact that I am not a morning person whatsoever, I don’t like being talked to or bothered at 8 in the morning, making everyone dislike me because I’m so crabby. But if we were to start school later in the day, I would probably be happier person who’s more engaged in school work and school discussions. I don’t mind ending later in the day as a result of starting later because at least I am awake in all my classes and fully understand the topics we go over, thus making it easier for me to complete my homework. But I do think that it is something we should not be completely angered by, because we did choose LaGuardia as our high school and we knew from the first day of freshmen year reading the very first yellow sheet, that LaGuardia school days were abnormal. Yet, we all chose to stay for 3 years now which proves the point that no matter how tiring our school days may be, we come to school every day knowing that we are in a special place where we meet others who have the same passion for arts that we do, even if it means being sleep deprived.

[3UIfeoma]

I honestly don't believe that school starts too early. For all of the time I've attended school from K-now, school has always started at 8:00. The only difference is that as I've leveled up, school had become farther and farther away. I think people really just need to be disciplined about getting to school on time. I live in Staten Island, but 9.5/10 I'm on time to first period. I will admit that at first it was hard, but now I'm very much used to it. I understand that people who go to LaGuardia have it tougher than other kids, because we have arts classes on top of academics, but its really what we *unfortunately* signed up for. Health-wise, I do agree that starting school so early and leaving so late does take a toll on most people. On typical days, I get about 4-5 hours of sleep, sometimes more or less. In class I sometimes have trouble concentrating and doing well. There have been days in the past that I have been so tired that I skipped a day or two of school to regain my Chi. We really need to  be proactive and plan around our schedules in order to see how we can attend such a demanding school and still be healthy and happy. I do agree that school starts early, but I wouldn't call it too early. I think the real question is: "Are we leaving schools too late?"

[10hdakembay]

I understand everyone's viewpoints, but I personally don't want school to start earlier. Starting school at an earlier time would mean that you could get up a little later, but on the flip side you would get out of school even later. Many people already made the point that we attend Laguardia so our school day is already two periods longer than kids that go to a normal public school. So if you add on an extra thirty to sixty minutes to our current dismissal time of 4:10, we would get out in between 4:40 and 5:10. Furthermore many Laguardia students have after school activities such as, sports, band, chorus, and dance. I know first hand how tough this is because I'm on the track team, and there were many days where practice would go until 6:30. By the time I got home it would be 7:30 and I had a ridiculous amount of homework requiring my attention and multiple test to study homework. By the time I finished all this, or just gave up, it was midnight. The next morning I would have to get up at six and do it all again, furthermore I was apparently luck, because while I got six hours of sleep many of my friends complained about getting only four. If school started later I would probably get even less sleep, because now after school activities would run even later. I believe the only solution to sleep deprivation is to decrease the amount of homework. I also find it ironic how many teachers say how they want their students to study what they learned that day for JUST fifteen minutes. If a student did this for every class the studying time would add up to at least an hour, plus the homework we are expected to do and practice our talent. Whenever teachers suggest this I just shake my head at them like they are crazy. So in conclusion I am strongly against school days starting later, but completely for teacher's decreasing the amount of homework they give.

[10dtandrila]

www.today.com/parents/should-high-schools-have-later-start-times-8C11073735

I support that schools (specifically high schools) should start later than usual. This would not only enhance students' performance in school but also will provide some extra time of sleep. According to the link mentioned above, the high authorities in the education system also believe in starting schools later than 8am. The U.S Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, voiced his opinion to NBC News as " he suggested that a later school start time would be beneficial, as it would give teens the opportunity for more sleep." However, LaGuardia High School is in a different position than most of the other regular high schools. The others usually end an hour or more earlier than LaGuardia High School, which means pushing the school time wouldn't really harm the students as the students will return home at a reasonable amount of time. On the other hand, most of the students in our school often commute for an hour or more hours just so they could reach the "Fame" school on time. Some even struggle so much that they end up with the "late" label on their report card for an entire school year. In addition, the talented students take part in various after-school activities for recreation or for building a strong profile for college applications. Such students end up reaching home around 8 at night which is bizarre due to the fact that they are required to keep up with all the academic and individual talent-major homework as well. A later start for this high school is a bigger dilemma because those students will now return home around 9 instead of 8 at night. Therefore, a later start isn't the ultimate solution for this particular high school. In my opinion, our school needs to shorten school schedule along with a later start. This way students will get to rest more as well as return home quicker than usual. I am aware of the fact that shortening each period is a problem for teachers as they need to finish their lesson on time. This can be resolved by shortening summer vacation and giving teachers more class time per year to provide complete lessons to their students. Students are always eager for summer vacation because they need a break from all that four-hours-sleep days and the huge pile of homework and projects. But we need to understand that life after school doesn't always gives us a definite amount of summer vacation. Therefore, this solution can not only prepare students for real-world situation but also improve their daily routine during the school months.