The time a high school starts can influence the education, habits, and health of its students. Many people believe that starting the school day later will have the most beneficial effect on learners. However, assuming the length of the school day stays the same, then an earlier start time would actually be a better choice.
The benefits of an earlier start time begin with a plethora of after-school activities. First, with an earlier start time there is more daylight for sports, allowing for longer practices. Second, Cline (2011) writes that a later start time can impact hours for after-school jobs; which are necessities for some students saving up for college or buying their first car. Third, “Starting the day early means more time for after-school tutoring and that student-athletes miss fewer classes to travel to after-school competitions” (Anderson, n.d., para. 2). An early start helps to ensure that a student or student-athlete can get help on a topic that they struggle with.
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According to Marie Anderson (n.d.), a school could start certain campuses before others “to save up to 30% on transportation costs” (para.5). This would also help parents that arrive to work early or have long commutes. There are many benefits of early start times for not only students, but for parents and even the school.
Even so, there are also decent advantages to having later start times. To start, a student's “biological clock” is much more ready to learn later in the day and gathers more knowledge at that time (Cline, 2011, para. 2). Cline (2011) also wrote about an experiment that changed start times from “7:15 AM to 8:40 AM or from 7:25 AM to 8:30 AM” in schools