Shaden Tweeten
English III
Mr. Bertelsen
9 November 2016
Starting School Later: A Benefit for All Everybody knows it: a teenager’s favorite activity to do is sleep. In fact, for some teenagers, it seems as though that is all they do. This may not be a case of laziness however, since recent studies have said that a teenager’s sleep rhythms make it difficult for them to go to sleep and wake up early. Unfortunately, teenagers have to break their rhythms often with their involvement in school programs that have them up in some cases as early as 5:00 A.M. Students are tired, and can barely make it through the day without falling asleep. Yet, there is a panacea to this struggle: starting school later. By starting school later, students are able to use their minds to their fullest ability, improve their general health, and allow the school to have a better overall academic performance. Adolescents are able to function their minds to the highest potential. It has been shown that when teenagers don’t get enough sleep, their overall lifestyle struggles.
…show more content…
However, this is not the case. In fact, starting school earlier will improve finance and efficiency. Take the Bonneville County School System in Idaho, for example. When the system implemented later school times, the absence rate dropped 15%. Why is this important? If you take the schools in California, whose school budget relies on attendance, this could mean big money. Megan Reilly, CFO for the Los Angeles Unified School District, has hypothesized that every 1% the attendance rate of schools districtwide goes up, an additional $40 million per year will be made by the schools (Lewis). As for efficiency, delaying school will help improve efficiency similar to sizing a class size down by 33%, as said by Teny M. Shapiro (Lewis). So, one can infer with the facts stated above that starting school would not be a waste of