Are we starting schools too early?

[3rpamela]

I personally think the there is no reason to start school so early. The DOE should give consideration for those who live far away, as well as those who have long school days. I only live 45 minutes away, however, the amount of schoolwork that is given to me after school, also adds to the deduction of sleep I get everyday. Therefore, once I’m in school it is hard for me and maybe for other students to concentrate 100% in class due to sleep deprivation. Not only that, but at least for LaGuardia the days are pretty long. Most students get home around 6:30 pm, which is already too much for a teenager to take. Then we have at least 3 hours of homework, which most of the time are big projects and reviews for upcoming tests. Also, some students have chores to do either at home or other places. In my case, I go to church during the week, so by the time I get home I have to quickly change and go to church. I end up getting home at 10:30pm, in which then I start doing homework. I feel like if schools were to start later in the day most students would be able to do better in class, and would have a better goodnight sleep. Sleep is also vital for our mental and physical growth, so we need shorter days! Keep in mind however, that schools should still end at 4:10. The amount of work we get for homework should be enough for us to maintain the understanding we get in each class.

[6ckiara]

I completely agree that schools are starting way too early. With the huge amount of work given to students these days, especially if they take honors/AP classes, they end up going to bed very late even without after school activities. I've always said I would join clubs when my homework load becomes manageable, but to this day, I still go to sleep at around midnight almost every night and wake up at 5:30 the next morning. While this is also a matter of the amount of homework we are given, I believe that starting school a little later will not only allow us to get some more sleep, but also affect our general alertness when we get to school, which we would normally not have even if we went to bed at 8pm. Maybe it's because we believe that if the sun isn't up, we shouldn't be either, but in general, no one wants to be in school at 8 in the morning. While our school is definitely a special case because of the double curriculum, school should not start until around 10 am in order for students to get the suggested 9-10 hours of sleep (taking into account time to get dressed and travel time). This would also mean that the school day has to be shortened in order to actually make a difference. Schools like ours may have a big problem with that, but our conference day schedule has proven that it is possible to have a shorter school day. Everyone looks forward to conference days because of the decreased stress and workload, and most of all, increased sleep! Making every day a conference day would certainly have enormous benefits.

[6bausar]

I do think that we start school fairly early. However, I also believe that the problem lies not only with when school starts, but when school ends. Most high schools tend to finish around 2:00-3:00 pm, but specialized high school like ours get out much later. This wouldn't even seem like such a big deal, but there's also the fact that LaGuardia is in Manhattan. Because of this, most students have commutes that vary from one hour to whoever knows how many, and this is a serious problem. There are people who live in Staten Island who get home very late in comparison to others. Another factor to take into account is that many of us want to take part in clubs, join school teams, or do any other extracurricular activity after school. With the already daunting time we leave school, we also have to deal with getting out at an even more ridiculous time. If we were to get out at 2:30 instead of 4:09, and had extracurricular activities after school, the time we would have to still get home and relax or do whatever else we have to would be cut down by a lot of time. I myself am on the gymnastics team, and on the days I don't have practice I get home at about 5:30. On days I do have practice, however, I end up getting home around 8:45-9:00 pm. Not only is it dangerous to be walking in complete darkness during these progressively cold nights, but I still have loads of homework my teachers pile on me as well as all other students. Most of the people I know, including myself, don't even go to bed before 12:00 because we have so much to do. Then after going to bed very late, we have to get up early in order to accommodate for the time it takes to get to school. I think this is why we consider the time school starts to be "early" when it really isn't. 8:00 is a fairly reasonable time. In fact, my zoned school starts earlier than that and gets out earlier than us still. 8:00 am is not bad, it's the late dismissal that is completely bothersome and annoying to deal with. Although I understand why we get out so late having our major's classes unlike other high schools, but it should not be so heavily draining to thousands of teenagers. In my opinion, the only solution to this would be to make the periods shorter and give us more freedom to customize our schedules to fit our daily lives. I have yet to go a single day without hearing someone complain about being tired, and I don't blame them at all. This school's system does not work.

[3lciara]

I think an 8 am start for school is very early, especially since most of us do not live within walking distance of the school. However, I wouldn't want the day to start later and end later either. My friends all go to private school which starts at 8 and ends at 2 every day. As juniors, they start at 8:45 and end at 2 some days and start at 8 and end at 1:15 other days. I think LaGuardia's school day should be shortened. I understand that we wouldn't be able to end at 1:15 as we have to take all our arts classes along with our academics, but the schedule does not have to be the exact same every day. A lot of schools have a different schedule for every day of the week and in these schedules some classes are longer than others and some are shortened. This would be really efficient in shortening the school day, but still making sure we get to go to all our classes.
We are required 5.5 hours of school a day in NY state, but LaGuardia's schedule has most kids going to school for 8 hours a day. The schedule could easily change to 5.5 hours a day with students coming in at 9 and leaving at 2:30.

[6REmily]

Being that school starts at 8:00 A.M. and ends at around 4:00 P.M., I think that school does start too early. Compared to LaGuardia High School, other schools sometimes start at the same time or a little later, as well as end a lot earlier. Because school ends later, some students get home later, causing them to have a limited amount of time to complete their homework for the night, as well as having time to sleep, to eat, to take a shower, and to do other necessary things. We can't forget about the after school clubs and activities. Students would have to stay half an hour to an hour later for these clubs and activities. By the time they get home, it would be pretty late.

It takes me about an hour and a half to get to school every morning, which is a very long time to me. I understand that many people wake up at 5:00 or 5:30 A.M. just to get ready for school every morning. However, I tend to wake up at around 6:20 A.M., just so I can get an additional hour of sleep each night. On days when I do not have to attend clubs, I get home at around 5:30 P.M., and on day when I do have to attend clubs, I get home at around 7:00 P.M. Unfortunately, this causes me to not have enough time to complete my homework, since I tend to have loads of assignments to do each night. Therefore, it is a struggle for me to sleep early and to get enough sleep. I get about five hours of sleep each night, which is very problematic towards my health and my sense of awareness and concentration.

Although I believe that LaGuardia High School starts too early, starting the school later is not very efficient either. If the school starts half an hour later, it would end half an hour later, which would lead to getting home later. Starting school later won't benefit students' sleeping schedule either. We would still be spending the same amount of time doing our daily tasks. Ultimately, we just have to get used to our schedules, and plan our time wisely in order to grow accustom to how the school days regulate.

[6caiden]

I live relatively close to LaGuardia, around a 15-minute train ride. I do however go to sleep relatively late because of the heaps of homework school gives me every night. On top of that, I take a long time to get ready to ensure I don’t forget any homework, get dressed and even eating breakfast can be a challenge because I’m constantly scared I’ll be late! I try to wake up earlier to lessen my stress and get to school much earlier, but it tires me out! I find myself tired all-day and hungry because I was rushing to get to school and forgot about breakfast. If children could have more time to sleep before waking up around 6:30 for a whole day of mental stimulation, wouldn’t there be an improvement? If we had more hours to sleep or prioritize our lives without stress in the mornings, children would be able to figure things out for themselves, they’d be able to ensure no homework was missing before they left home, and even better, our brains would be freshened for a new day of education. I believe school starts way too early, and like it was said in the article, 9:15 would be a much more beneficial time for students.

[analiessec]

I too believe that school should start at a later time. I remember freshman year having gym first period and those mornings I was able to come in second were my favorite. I was more responsive in the morning and also excited to go to school. Now for the past two years I’ve had to adjust to a permanent first period schedule and I’ve realized how rough my mornings and school has been. I usually wake up at 6 to get ready and leave my house by 7:25 to get to school two minutes before the late bell rings. In the morning I’ve had to sacrifice certain aspects of my morning just to get to school on time. Some mornings I don’t even eat breakfast or finish my breakfast because it take too much time. I’ve realized I find myself falling asleep in my classes more often and my main focus is when school ends so I can go home and take a nap. I want to add onto this discussing by also bringing up the point that school should end earlier. Now I know that is impossible for us considering we have to fit all of our performing arts classes in but as a compromise I think we should have more conference days (that are also shorter) so we can fit in time for extra circulars and after school clubs/ programs. Especially with Junior year being so important for colleges its a must for us to find a way to fit in these activities. With us getting out at 4:10 everyday its especially hard to do so when we are focused on getting home to do our homework and get our sleep to comply with having to go to school so early.