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!