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Why High School Should Start Later Essay

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Recommended: Sleep deprivation in adolescents

What if sleeping could solve all of our problems? What if school starting later was the cure for mental health in teens across the US? Some scientists are saying that this is the answer. Many schools are doing just that as they push to start at a later time. Park City High School should start at a later time for many reasons such as the improvement of academic skills and success, mental health and cut sleep-related car accidents down to a minimum. First of all, if students are coming to school with a good night sleep then their academic skills should be higher and they will be more successful. Scientists prove that your brain doesn't start working until roughly 10:00 in the morning. That means that any class before that the students are not actually learning and applying the information they learned. This would be a huge …show more content…

"We're going to look back on this time period and wonder why it took so long," said Phyllis Payne of Start School Later. This will help teens excel to their fullest and not be held down with lack of sleep. Many students don’t get the sleep they need to function throughout the day and many kids fall asleep in class says Bridget Shelton, a freshman at Seattle's Roosevelt High School. This is another reason why Park City High School should start at a later time. Last but no least, many students that drive in high school are likely to be out at night driving and if they are tired and sleep deprived, then they are more likely to crash their car from drifting off the road. It is hard for parents to hear about teens getting in accidents and all we hear about is the ones that parents can do something about and that is alcohol related accidents. But parents, you can do something about lack of sleep. You can vote and make teens start school later at Park City High School. The obstacles to change mostly have to do with money and that is one of the reason that more high schools aren't switching

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If students have lack of sleep, they may not pay attention to the roads and the drivers on the roads, which increases the risk of traffic accidents, (according to www.npr.org). The increased risk of traffic accidents may also be because of how dark it is outside when students have to walk over to the bus stop. It’s so early when kids’ buses come, that it’s usually dark outside, and drivers may not see kids walking. The final reason why middle and high school start times should be later is for the protection of student health.

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Have you ever woke up really early in the morning and thought, man school should really start later? Well I completely agree, for three reasons actually. My reasons are one when you start school your brain in not fully awake enough to learn to its fullest potential, two the absentee rate would decrease by a bunch, and three it would improve test scores by a dramatic fashion. In the next three paragraphs I will give you facts that will show you that these are in fact true. My first fact is that students aren’t awake enough in their first block class to really even get enough out of it.

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