Why School Should Start Later

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Should School Start Later? By Drew Macklin Black O’Keefe It’s 6:00 am and I’ve already been up for 1/2 an hour. Why? Not because my dog is barking, or the sun is blinding; it’s because my school starts in an hour and I have to get driven through the rush-hour traffic that clogs around the school. Even after taking a shower and packing my bag, I’m struggling to fight off the yawns. I only get 7 hours of sleep on a good night because I’m staying up past 10:30 doing homework, and getting up a 5:30 to get to school on time. What can give me more sleep, let me walk to school, or eat breakfast? A later start to school. If school were to start later I could sleep-in in the morning. Staying up late to do homework and having to get up early the next …show more content…

Ed Ehlinger of the University of Michigan's Boynton Health Service said in a statement. "There is a direct link between the two." I’m not alone when I say I’m tired. According to the Sleep Foundation, ¨About two-thirds of Americans say their sleep needs are not being met during the week.¨ If school were to start later, kids might do better in school and not be tired during the school day. No Sleepless Nights (an advocacy group) recommends that everybody try to get into a schedule, waking up and going to bed at relatively constant times every day of the week. On school days, I go to bed late and wake up early, and on weekends its quite the opposite, as I try to make up for lost sleep. This habit is unhealthy. If school started later, I could get into a healthy sleep schedule and not have to recover from under-slept nights. According to The National Sleep Foundation it is natural for teens to be most alert around 11 pm and then need to sleep in in the morning. ¨This shift in teens' circadian rhythm causes them to naturally feel alert later at night, making it difficult for them to fall asleep before 11:00 pm. Since most teens have early school start times along with other commitments, this sleep phase delay …show more content…

This would help kids stay fit. According to the President’s Council on Fitness, only 1/12 of kids get enough exercise on a daily basis. ¨The President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition says that only a third of American children participate in physical activities on a daily basis. Unfortunately, participation in team sports doesn't guarantee your child enough daily physical activity, either. According to a study published in the April 2011 issue of ‘Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine,’ only around 25 percent of children who play team sports get enough daily exercise. Of the young athletes studied, many spent an average of 30 minutes standing or sitting during sports practice.¨ If ⅓ of all kids play sports, and only ¼ of them actually get adequate exercise from that sport, only 1/12 of all US kids get enough exercise. And getting exercise is only one piece of the benefit of walking to school. If kids walk to school, millions of cars nationwide would not be polluting the air. According to guide.saferoutesinfo.org, only 1/10 of kids walk to school in the US. According to the US 2012 census, there are 74.3 million kids in the US. According to the Christian Science Monitor, the average car gets 24 miles per gallon. According to Yahoo Answers, the average US house is 6 miles from the school. Since kids need to be picked up and dropped off at school every day, the distance

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