Why School Should Start Later

There are many reasons that cause kids to become bad people or become seriously injured. One of the main reasons is from school starting times. Schools have started around 8:00am or later so why would they all of a sudden make school start at 7:45 or earlier. The reason why schools should start earlier are school starts way too early, School controls every aspect of a young teens life, and Statistics show that with a later starting time.

School starting times around the country range from 8:00 am or earlier. As explained by School start later who explains that “Over 20% of U.S. middle schools start the school day at 7:45 a.m. or earlier.”(“Wake up”) which shows that they have done research and surveys to show that school start at these times
or earlier. These school schedules cut right into the natural sleep schedule which is “Due to teens hormones teens are naturally able to stay up later and sleep in through the morning, When school starting times cuts right through that routine.”(Holohan). This is the cause because schools try to pack in work hours throughout the day. But the ending school times are “In the United States, the typical school holds classes on weekdays, from about 8:00 am to 3:00 pm.” (“School.”182). Which takes away most of the light hours away from kids they would only have around two hours of light after school.“Teens naturally stay up later due to their hormones.” (“Wake up”) make it to where if the school hours start at 7:45 kids will be sleep deprived and not act the same or have the same work if they had a couple more hours to sleep.

School times affect almost every aspect of a teens life especially a sixteen year old with them just being able to drive.
This is explained by Holohan “Starting the school day earlier may lead to more car accidents involving teenagers, new research suggests.”(Holohan). So if schools have early start times they are putting not only the children in danger they are also putting the other citizens of the city in danger. The starting times will also affect their lives later on as described by “Wake up”Insufficient sleep in teens is associated with obesity, migraines, and immune system disruption and with health risk behaviors including smoking, drinking, stimulant abuse, physical fighting, physical inactivity, depression, and suicidal tendencies(“Wake up”)With studies like these schools really need to start paying attention because if the start times are affecting this many things than schools are doing more bad than they are good. This also affects out of school activities which is explained by Edwards “Activities such as sports and work, along with family and social schedules, may make it difficult for students to adjust the time they go to bed. In addition, the onset of puberty brings two factors that can make this adjustment particularly difficult for adolescents: an increase in the amount of sleep needed and a change in the natural timing of the sleep cycle.”(Edwards). These are also caused by kids being given homework after having a full day of spending almost eight hours
of their life at school. Which is explained by Ponte “Homework takes away activity times and family times.”(Ponte) and she also describes that homework will take over your weekend “They have no time at the end of the day for social activities or even over the weekends for what they want to do instead of doing homework.”(Ponte).

The statistics that show when you change the starting times of school by 1 hour later then the test scores will increase.
Which is better explained by Edwards who says“I find that delaying school start times by one hour, from roughly 7:30 to 8:30, increases standardized test scores by at least 2 percentile points in math and 1 percentile point in reading.”(Edwards). Which all it means is that more sleep equals better test grades in students. This is also the same with car accidents in the mornings as explained by “Wake up” and Holohan “When Jackson Hole High School in Wyoming shifted its start time to 8:55 a.m., the number of car crashes involving teenage drivers dropped by 70%.” (“Wake up”) and “Two studies correlated sleep to a decrease in crash rates among teen drivers.”(Holohan) . Again the school times also affect how the kids act as adults down the line again explained by “Wake up”“Statistics that show that sleeping improves children's behavior for life later on”(“Wake up”). But not only does the times affect their grades, driving, or life later on. It also affects their attendance at school which was stated again by “Wake up”“Several school surveys showed that as school times got later that the children that attend the school their grades increased and as well as their attendance.”(“Wake up”) which is because of the fact that parents don't have time to get their kids ready to school or drive them to school. So the parents just leave their kids at home to do jobs
around the house or for their family. Which leaves their kids without any school knowledge and completely clueless for life later on.

In conclusion, school starts way too early, The school times affect kids life then and later on, and statistics that show with later start times reduces those effects on children. Schools times at 7:45 make kids get up way too early and it hurts their natural sleep schedule. The effects on children is way to great to just add one hour to the start of the school day to try and add school time in. Statistics show that with the school times changed to at least an hour later there will be an increase in test scores.