School Times

    School is an important part of a kid's life. But how are we to learn if we're tired and unresponsive in the morning? Older kids should get to sleep in. The younger kids should have to get up earlier. The times of what time school starts should switch, an the ending times should stay the same. It would be a benefit for the teens and honestly, the younger kids probably won't care as much.

     A proven fact by experts is the simple statement that teens need more sleep. The risk of fatal injuries or death is increased if it's an older teen that can drive. It can also slow down your reaction time, it causes lapses in attention, exacerbates emotional and behavioral problems. Also if they change their 'sleeping schedule' on the weekends, they stay up longer on school nights and sleep less. It also effects their school performance. Since it's difficult to pay attention when you're tired, they might not learn as well and might do worse on homework or a test. It also increases moodiness and the chance the teens will start into drugs and alcohol. Sleep amount has a huge effect.

     Teens get more homework than the younger kids. Teens stay up later doing their homework. They get tired, but to avoid trouble, they force themselves to stay up and finish the paper. In that case, teens stay up later, and get yet even less sleep. If they had an extra hour to sleep in, they could use that to finish their homework and still get more sleep. It would help a lot with both homework completion and attention in school. If teens had less homework, they would go to bed earlier. By choice.

     The younger kids have recess, so they basically have intermission. But since they're younger and have lots more energy, they could use it. We don't have a recess for more than 5 minutes. Recess eats up time in their day, and we spend the whole day working. Which makes us even more tired, working our brains all day. If they started earlier, they could have the needed recesses and at the same time, work as hard and as long as we do.

     The beginning times should switch for the main reason of sleep. Teens need more sleep, and it would be easier if they could catch another hour of it. It would help with a lot of things they do, and it would make life safer, easier, and it would help teens achieve higher grades. Sleep is basically what teens like to do!

Periwinkle the Panda

Periwinkle the Panda was having a good time. His mother was teaching him how to fight, and they were punching the fake tree planted in the middle of their cage. They were talking about last night’s football game, when suddenly, someone opened the door. “Dinner Time!” he yelled. They ran over to take the bamboo sticks out of his hand, and he jumped back. “I hate working with the pandas,” he said to his partner. “They’re big and scary.” “I don’t think they’re that bad,” his partner said. He replied, “Well, either way, we’re getting rid of them. The boss will never know.” Clueless, the pandas just sat there, eating and still talking about the football game.

            The Beijing Zoo was rather rich. A TV in each cage, lots of toys, and an overstock of food. Some were being tested on, like the pandas. They were seeing if they would act differently if they watched sports, drama, or comedy shows. The sports and comedy section stood out the most to them. Obviously, since they were talking about the football game, the watched sports. Interesting!

            That night, it was not calm. The wind was forcing the trees to scrape against the wall, and it was making Periwinkle scared.  It was raining rather hard, and it was not pleasant. That night, he had a dream. A dream the world of black and white became color. And all pandas were the glorious colors of the rainbow. If only it was like that in real life…

            Periwinkle woke up in a ball. He fell off his little panda bed and he was in a pile of long grass. He sat up, and he saw his mother sleeping. He started walking towards the food dish, sitting there, and waiting. About an hour later, the men came, and they fed the pandas. Periwinkle woke his mom up, and they enjoyed their meal. “Ready?” said the man. “No!” said his partner. “Let’s go.”

           Next thing they know, there’s a snare pole around Periwinkle’s mothers’ neck. She tried to break free, but there was nothing she could do. She was trapped. Periwinkle started to cry, “MOMMY!!!” She was tugged back, and with that, she smacked the man so hard, he fell to the ground. He didn’t let go. There was nothing she could do, and nothing Periwinkle could do.

            “Run!” She said. “Run, and don’t ever come back!”

            Periwinkle started to run, but saw nowhere to hide. There was an open door, and he crawled through. He ran until he could no more, and he found himself asleep on the floor of a bamboo forest. As he fell asleep, he couldn’t help but dream about his mother. Was she alright? Is she dead? Even worse, is she dead? Whatever happened, he couldn’t go back. Never.

            When he woke up, there was something very close to his face. He looked up, and saw another panda. “Mommy! You’re okay!” he happily screamed. He jumped up on the other panda, which now had a very confused facial expression.

            “What on earth are you talking about?” It was a female voice, but not his mother’s. He took a step back, also confused, now. “I’m Pinky! Not your mommy!” she said. Pinky looked at Periwinkle, who started to cry. “What’s wrong?”
            “My mommy is either in great pain, or dead.” He cried even harder at the thought, and couldn’t pull it together. How was he to survive on his own, knowing only the experience from his mother?

           “You can live with us, if you’d like!” Pinky offered. She ran off, signaling the ‘follow’ symbol. Unsure, Periwinkle slowly followed. “Come on!” she giggled.

           They walked through the forest for a very long time, talking about their lives, exchanging stories and such. They walked and walked, until they could no more. They found themselves lost, so they made a base and stayed there, never able to find anyone, or anything.

            They stayed there for their lives, eventually having kids and growing up to be one big happy family. But Periwinkle’s mother never left his heart.