School should start later, and the district should move to block scheduling
February 19, 2016
As of now, school hours are from 7:15 in the morning to 2:20 in the afternoon for high school students. We, at Stroudsburg, start school too early; we end our day at school at a reasonable time, but starting early is the problem. Studies show that the human brain isn’t fully alert until late morning and early afternoon. Even some German and American schools made the change to start school in the later morning. From this they experienced improved scores on exams and reduced rates of truancy and depression.
Professor Russell Foster, an Oxford University scientist who conducted this specific study, says that “It is cruel to impose a cultural pattern on teenagers that makes them underachieve.” Foster also believes that forcing teenagers to “turn up to school in the morning” could result in more errors, poor memory, reduced motivation and depression. This Oxford scientist also found that the time at which children become fully awake gets progressively later as they get older. He believes that schools should not start until 11:00 in the morning because before that, it would leave students in sort of a “jet-lag” state. I believe that 11:00 is too late to start school, but starting school at 10:00 would be a more reasonable option. This also coincides with my next topic.
Along with classes starting at 10:00, I believe we should have blocked classes. Block classes are similar to college schedules. Ai??In college they have 3 or 4 certain classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and the other classes on Tuesday and Thursday. Since the Tuesday and Thursday classes would only meet twice a week instead of three times, these classes could be longer than the classes on the alternating days of the week. By doing this there would be more of a responsibility on the student to finish his/her work and an expectation of them to understand the material and ask for help during their classes when they didn’t understand something, but it also prepares students for college life. In college, this is how life is: only have certain classes on certain days. These changes could improve student health, as well as prepare students for the future. Along with the start time, it would improve test scores, student attitude, and reduce truancy.
In conclusion, starting school later in the morning would reduce the tiredness in students, make them more aware and prepared, improve their health, reduce truancy, grades would be improved and there would be more expected of the students. I think that it’s a really good idea to consider; it could be a more effective way of education. Also, it wouldn’t make students hate going to school so much.
Cassidy Miller
Senior
Daniel Sorrenti • Apr 14, 2016 at 10:03 AM
Waking up at the crack of dawn and preparing yourself for a 7 hour school day can be frustrating for many students; as can having to jump into a new type of scheduling straight out of high school. Senior Cassidy Miller has stated that schools should not only start later but perhaps run on a block schedule as well. Professor Russell Foster, an Oxford University scientist conducted a study of students whereas he states that it is “cruel” to impose a cultural pattern where students will underachieve. He also states that starting earlier in the morning may induce students to have poor memory, more errors, reduced motivation, and even depression. I agree with both of these statements as many fellow students do believe it it more challenging to focus at 7am on their Advanced Placement courses where they are expected to put forth their all; when in reality they may underachieve, and as stated, have academically flawed performance. Likewise, with school beginning later in the morning, this would enable students to have improved test scores, improved attendance, and decreased rates of truancy and depression. I also agree with the idea cast forward with the addition of block scheduling. As Cassidy stated, this would prove beneficial towards making students feel more comfortable and relaxed when entering college after graduation, and feeling as if they know what they are doing. It would prove to be less difficult to adjust to, and more challenging to the student academically whereas they would have to pay more attention in class, ask additional questions, overall improve test scores, reduce truancy, and increase positive student attitude.
Katherine Volpe • Apr 13, 2016 at 11:11 AM
While starting school later in the day may sound convenient, it poses many problems and is unnecessary. Firstly, in a school district with around 400 students per grade, it is imperative that start and end times of each school are staggered, in order to provide buses for everyone. If high school started at 10:00 a.m. like the author suggested, the entire district would be affected. Having elementary students start before us seems unfair, and starting later than the high school would mean that they stayed late into the evening. Other schools aside, the high school would also face problems, because a 7 hour school day that started at 10:00 would end at 5:00p.m. It would be nearly impossible to fit in extra curricular activities, homework, and time with family and friends after. Sleeping in and starting school later sounds tempting; however, it will likely never be a reality due to the problems it would create.
Isaiah Jones • Apr 13, 2016 at 10:18 AM
Cassidy Miller makes an excellent point about school starting in late morning and blocked classes. The health benefits to teachers and students by starting classes in late morning around 10 A.M tremendously outweigh problems that may occur such as busing schedule clashes with elementary students. On 2 hour delays students teachers notice how alert and attentive students are because of 2 extra hours of sleep. As Miller states in the article some American schools have progressed to start schools at a later time and “From this they experienced improved scores on exams and reduced rates of truancy and depression”; this obviously shows how beneficial starting school later in the morning would be to a student’s overall health. On the point of blocked classes Miller also states that “blocked classes are similar to college classes”. Today, most students who finish high school also attend college which is an extremely good reason for high school students to be as prepared as they can for college which includes times schedules. In conclusion I agree with Cassidy Miller on the idea that it would be beneficial for classes to be started later in the morning and blocked scheduling.
Heba Elrawashdy • Apr 13, 2016 at 10:15 AM
Cassidy Miller writes an article demonstrating that “school should start later, and the district should move to block scheduling.” In my opinion, schools should start later because it is in the best interest of the student; I disagree with the statement that we should have block scheduling because it contradicts the purpose of school starting later.
To begin, starting school later would benefit students largely. Many students have very busy lives with jobs, multiple extracurricular activities, and homework. As a result of the time school starts, most students have to wake up at 5 AM meaning they would have to go to sleep at 8 PM to get the proper nine hours for their age, a nearly impossible task for students with several after-school activities; the lack of of sleep that results from this can affect their school work and make them less able to perform at their best throughout their day. Miller also points out that studies show people are best able to focus in the late morning, early afternoon.
Although I agree with school starting later, I do not agree that we should have block periods. Miller brought up a valid point mentioning that this would prepare students for college, where the system is similar to block scheduling – but their are negative aspects to this system too. Studies show that you learn the best in the first thirty minutes of your lesson because that is when you are the most focused. After the first thirty minutes you are most likely wasting your time trying to learn anything new. Similarly, if a runner had a race and he wanted to get the best time possible, should he run for a half hour at his fastest just before his race? It’s the same with learning. After thirty minutes of learning at your best, continuing on after is a lesson wasted because you will not truly learn it.
Though Cassidy made a valid point in suggesting school should start later, her argument that we should have block classes undermines the purpose of starting school later which is in favor of students focus in school.
Paige Maletz • Apr 13, 2016 at 10:01 AM
At first glance, block scheduling and starting school at a later hour appears pleasing to students. However, after taking a closer look it is evident that this type of school day is less efficient. Block scheduling can potentially leave a student at a very high disadvantage. If a student has blocked math during fall of their sophomore year, it is possible that they will not have another math class until spring of their junior year. A year and a half without a class, especially a core subject, could be harmful to a student’s education. Not only should the current school schedule remain, but also the current school hours. The letter stated, “I believe that 11:00 is too late to start school, but starting school at 10:00 would be a more reasonable option”. This author claims that a later time start is reasonable; she could not be further from the truth. Starting school a 10:00, 2 hours and 45 minutes later, would mean that school would end at 5:05. Nearly every student is involved in extra-circular activities. It is extremely unreasonable to have activities begin so late and would make a regular day much more taxing and tiring. Despite the outer appeal of block scheduling and starting school later, it does not make sense and would cause more harm than good.