School Should Start Later Argumentative Essay

During the pandemic when we were full remote I got to wake up 5 minutes before 8 and get on my call for school. I felt we rested and was able to focus on my early classes. Now being back full time I wake up at 6:45. I haven’t been able to focus as well and I’m tired in the mornings. Currently, many teenagers do not get enough sleep on school nights. As a result, some people believe that school should start later. Schools should start later because students do better academically when they get more sleep and would be less prone to errors and accidents when sleep deprived.

Students do better academically when they can have more sleep. When kids get more sleep they can focus better. Kids have early classes that could be important to their academic careers. ¨Amy Wolfson, Ph.D., and Mary Carskadon, Ph.D. surveyed more than 3,000 high school students. They found that those who reported poor grades (C, D, or F) reported getting 25 fewer minutes of sleep than the students who reported getting A’s and B’s¨ (Morgan 2). Kids aren’t getting enough sleep and it’s showing by the way they are doing academically.

Additionally, there would be fewer car crashes if school started later When teens don’t get enough sleep they are more likely to make mistakes when driving which could lead to them getting into a crash. Teens have a slower reaction time and aren’t as focused as they need to be.¨When teens drive while they are drowsy, they have slowed reaction times and have a hard time paying attention to the road¨ (Morgan 1). If teens are drowsy they can not just be putting themselves in danger if they drive but also the people around them.

However, some people believe that school starts later then transport cost will get higher. People say that the schools need more bus drivers to get to all schools. The reason some schools need to start early is that the buses need to go to multiple schools. If one school started later then the bus schedules would overlap.  Suffolk Public Schools in Virginia estimates that by starting some campuses at 7:25 a.m. they will be able to save around $680,000 a year (Anderson 1-2). Nonetheless, all schools could just start a little bit later. Not only one school has to start later, but all school in their district could also start later to fix the transportation problem.

In conclusion, many teenagers do not get enough sleep on school nights. Teens who get less sleep also tend to get lower grades. Also, teens who don’t get enough sleep are more likely to put themselves and others at risk when driving to school. If schools made this change happen it would benefit a lot of kids helping them get into better colleges because of their grades. It would also prevent a lot of teen car crashes because they wouldn’t be tired and they would be fully aware of their surroundings.