Should the school day start later?

Should school start later? Yes, school starting later would benefit not only the schools but as well students, parents, and the entire community.

Firstly, starting school an hour later allows students' bodies to repair and allows their brains to consolidate their memories and process information. With this increase in sleep their immune systems will be able to strengthen and linked problems such as anxiety or depression will be less likely to occur.

 Research by the New York Times has shown that during adolescence, as the brain is developing, teenagers need optimal sleep schedules meaning around 8-9 hours a night. Due to the intense rigor of school, students primarily stay up late studying. With a new later schedule, students would spend the same amount of time awake at night yet would get an extra hour or two in the morning. This would improve mental health and students will be less likely to be tardy and would have fewer behavioural issues during the school day. A lack of sleep is also linked to students' impulsive tendencies and risky decision making - meaning students will be more cooperative and far more productive if they get their minimum 8 hours of sleep. 

Finally, in regards to the bus schedule, it would be adapted to the students' later schedule. This would allow students to travel when it is not rush hour and would mean that the travel time between their home and school would be minimised as well. Student’s parents are not able to take them to school are given the opportunity to take the bus, which also allows them to decrease their carbon emissions.

Many students and teens would prefer to have school later but not just for their own benefit but for their health. I think this is one of the most important things to remember when debating whether school should start later.

Should the school day start later? No! I will be telling you a couple of reasons why the school day should not start later.

First of all, It could affect your parents work schedule. If school starts later than that would mean that your parents would have to stay at home for longer into the day which could mess up their work and could even get them fired for being late.

If school starts later than that would mean that the school day would end later into the day this is bad for a couple of reasons. One reason is that it could affect your work if students have a job after school. A late end of the school day could affect the hours you can put into work and you could even get fired because the boss might need you at a specific work time and if you can't make that time limit because of school it could end badly.

Another big factor why it would be bad for school to end late is because of sports. Sports practices usually start right after school and go for around one to two hours. This means that it would end around dinner time so you could eat with your family. If school ends later than it would mean that sports would start later or you would just not have any practices. If sports started later a you might be getting home around 8pm which is really late for eating and it would be hard to do your homework in such little time before going to sleep. 

A problem with starting the school day later is some people have to take care of their siblings which they won't be able to do if the school day starts later. 

One last reason why the school day should not start later is because of a bus schedule. Everyday the bus will drop off the high schoolers then middle schoolers than the elementary students. If the school day starts later for teens than it could mess up the bus schedule and the bus might not be an option for people on some days. 

That is some reasons why the school day should not start later.