This year, Marist has implemented late starts one day a week to let their teachers have professional development before school. I believe late starts benefit students. In fact, I think there should be late starts twice a week.
Late starts benefit me and my schedule because I get more sleep, can do my homework before school, or get my chores out of the way before leaving. Although my peers beg to differ, research has shown more sleep benefits every aspect of your life.
In a poll conducted of 35 students, when I asked the question if students feel late starts benefit their schoolwork, 74% said yes and 25% said maybe, while 0% of Marist students said no.
Marist could offer late starts on Tuesday and Thursday to benefit their students’ needs. 97% of Marist students said they would love to have late starts or early dismissals more than once a week, while only 3% of the people polled said they wouldn’t want that.
U.S. News reports that late starts help reduce the risk of car accidents and injuries. Many Marist students travel half an hour or more to get to school in the morning. Late starts offer more time to get to school and reduce havoc in the morning.
Many of my peers get an extra hour of sleep Wednesday night before the Thursday late start, which is very beneficial to them in their schoolwork. Teenagers are supposed to get at least eight hours of sleep a night. 70% of high schoolers get below the national average.
“I go to bed at 12 on school nights and have to wake up at six,” said student Emma Putrow. That’s only six hours of sleep. She later said that the morning of the late start she doesn’t wake up till 8 a.m., which means she gets 8 hours of sleep – the national recommended time.
“Studies show a significant improvement in the sleep duration of students all by delaying school start times so that they’re more in line with the natural wake-up times of adolescents,” said Gideon Dunster University of Washington professor of biology.
Although 67% of the people polled said they would rather have early dismissal, 33% said they prefer the late start.
The people who play sports at Marist expressed reasoning such as if they had early dismissal and had practice after school, they would have to wait till teachers/coaches got out of meetings at 2:42 p.m. for their sports to begin. Although many students get to go home early, athletes and club members don’t have that option.
For athletes like me, on a late start I have to be at Marist by 7:30 for morning workouts. After those workouts, I have an hour window to get a head start on my schoolwork for the day or study for upcoming tests.
In states such as Colorado and Connecticut, they have noticed an increase in statewide testing scores all because of starting school an hour later.
After hearing the statistics and how late starts benefit students all around, many of the students polled changed their mind in favor of late starts.
“After hearing that late starts benefit me and my schoolwork I prefer late starts over early dismissals,” said sophomore Ava Young.
