Laguardia High School Case Study

LaGuardia High School is a specialized school, meaning that students attending are not only intellectual, but talented as well. Typical schools tend to begin their day at around 7AM or 8AM and end roughly around 2PM or 3PM. However, a normal day at LaGuardia High School begins at 8AM and does not finish until after 4PM. This is an unacceptable amount of time to have teenagers in school because it is too difficult for students to manage their time properly.
Every student in LaGuardia must work hard every single day to maintain a high GPA. These excessively long school hours have a negative effect on how well students perform in their everyday classes due to the lack of time the students are sleeping. Coincidentally, the students' lack of sleep is occurring because they do not have enough time to finish all

of their homework. This over tiredness due to the large workloads given by teachers with not enough time to complete them is a vicious cycle that will not end unless students are released from school earlier. It has been proven that lack of sleep results in an inability to concentrate in class and retain information. Adding to the stress of every day academic classes, all students have their own studio classes, a long commute home, and two to three hours of homework ahead of them. Therefore it is completely beneficial for LaGuardia High School to release students earlier.
Although shorter school hours would have a positive effect on both students' academic and artistic performance and their attitudes, people will still argue against this.

Some might say that students attending specialized high schools were selected for a reason, as if students ask for this amount of work and lack of relaxation time. Many believe that they should learn to manage their time better and learn how to handle things, however this is untrue. Teens are prone to stress and anxiety due to the changing in hormones and such. Adding all of this unnecessary stress to them will just cause them to become overwhelmed and shut down. Yes, students need to learn how to manage their time wisely, but the solution to balancing your time equally is not getting bombarded with hours of school work after a long school day and commute home.
Overall, I stand by my argument of letting students out of school earlier. If they can not be let out earlier than they should at least get less homework so it can be done on time and efficiently. This will only benefit our students by helping them to focus more, making them happier, and creating a better future for generations to

come.