Why School Should Start Later?

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Learning is one of the most important aspects of a person's life. It is through learning that people can build their career paths and, in turn, earn a living to sustain their families. The current school curriculum allows schools to start at 8 am, and it is believed that this decision was made based on the best interest of teachers and students. However, this is not always the case since it leaves people with inadequate time to work on personal matters. Therefore, the curriculum should allow schools to start later to curb the various challenges that teachers and students have been facing as a result of schools starting at 8 am. Such challenges make it difficult for both parties to effectively perform their duties. Starting schools later would allow teachers and students enough time to sleep and balance their school and home activities.
Schools should start later to help reduce the various health-related issues that occur due to the lack of enough sleep. Most teachers have families to take care of, and therefore, they end up sleeping late at night. Therefore, if they are supposed to be at school at 8 am, then they would have to wake up early to prepare. Such is an indication that they would hardly get to sleep the recommended eight hours. The lack of enough sleep can result in various health issues such as diabetes and heart diseases. An individual's health is the most important thing about their life and should, therefore, not be disrupted. The same case applies to students since they mostly have assignments to work on after school. Given that students require time to spend with family or play to relieve the stress accumulated from school, then they might end up sleeping late. This means that going to school by 8 am would not provide them adequate hours to sleep. The students stand the same chances of getting health-related conditions due to the lack of enough sleep (Minges, Karl, and Nancy 88). If students fall ill frequently due to the lack of enough sleep, then it would be difficult for them to catch up with classwork. The same case applies to teachers. Besides, if teachers miss school, the students have more to lose because they might end up not completing the syllabus. The education system does not want to produce half-baked grades, where students are unable to cope with the job market. Hence, it is necessary for the system to prioritize the health of both teachers and students. The lack of sleep might not necessarily make someone sick, but mental fatigue would make it difficult for them to concentrate during class hours. Thus, schools should start later to allow students and teachers enough time to sleep, and in turn, enhance their performance in school-related activities.
As well, schools should start later to enable student cop with various academic responsibilities. The school curriculum requires students to carry out different assignments as a way of testing their understanding of concepts. In most cases, students work on assignments after school. Therefore, a student has to utilize the little time left after school to work on assignments and carry out personal duties. The chances are high that the student t would work on the assignments in a rush so that they can focus on other non-school activities. Such is an indication that the student is unable to cope with their various academic activities. However, if schools would start later, then students would have more free time to work on both assignments and personal activities without a rush. The outcome is an improvement in academic performance. Students can focus on doing assignments in the morning hour before they can go to school. “A growing body of evidence shows that delaying school start times positively impacts student achievement, health, and safety”(Watson, Nathaniel, et al. 624).Hence, schools need to start later to facilitate the achievement of academic goals. In addition, if students are allocated more time to work on assignments, then they would be in a position to understand concepts better through research. The aim of take-home assignments is to provide students with an opportunity to research beyond the concepts that they had learned in school. The achievement of such goals would require schools to offer students more time to complete their assignments. “Inadequate sleep results in compromised physical health, emotional and behavioral problems, and reduced ability to perform and learn”(Trevorrow, Tracy, et al 167).As well, the students would feel confident while answering questions about the concepts that they have taught themselves during the extra time since they would have relaxed minds. Such confidence motivates students to perform better in the class environment. Therefore, it is the role of policymakers to ensure that the education system is beneficial to students. This would be best done by allowing schools to start later to ensure that students have adequate time to work on assignments. Also, if students fail to finish their non-school activities, the chances are high that their minds would not be settled while in class. The key aspect of ensuring that students understand concepts during class hours is for them to have a relaxed mind. Hence, a student who has a lot of things in their to-do-list to think about will hardly pay attention in class. In some cases, teachers have blamed themselves for students scoring low grades (Heissel, Jennifer and Samuel 972). The reality is that the teachers do great work in educating students. The low grades are a result of students not paying enough attention during class hours. The education system should not all be about students going to school for the sake of getting papers. However, they should be able to understand what is being taught and gain skills that they would apply in the real world. All that the policymakers need to do is allow for schools to start later so that students can have adequate time to plan for their daily activities.
It is a common observation that high school students and freshmen have to face far more challenges than those who are studying in graduate or postgraduate classes. This is because they have a lack of confidence and some of them do not even know how to undertake multiple tasks at a time. They willingly or unwillingly study overnight and intend to impress their teachers in one way or the other. When a person remains awake the whole night, it would obviously be difficult for him or her to wake up early in the morning and reach the institution. The same is the situation of these students; they are kept under consistent pressure of showing the best performance and giving good results. If schools would start late, it would surely become easy for such students to have some time in the morning to prepare their presentations, lessons and other things that might be needed while they are at school or college. Another problem with these students is that they need extra time to learn how to manage their time on a daily basis. For example, if their schools start at 8 a.m. and they then have to do the homework and other things after reaching the home, it would never be possible for them to have some time for themselves and for their families. The chance is that they would not be able to show really good performance and might remain behind the competition. In case their schools start late, it would be easy for them to sit and plan things for the whole day and they would surely feel relaxed as they would have an idea of what to...