Everybody hates it. Waking up early to the sound of an irritating alarm clock, possibly skipping breakfast, and enduring a long commute every morning while still half-asleep. It seems as though it would be a no-brainer to delay the start of school to make arriving on time each day more reasonable and less excruciating. In fact, research often suggests a later start to high school is better for teens. But is it really worth it? Despite all this, delaying the Band 1 start time at Townsend Harris would cause more problems than it would solve.
Every normal school day, Band 1 begins at 8:00 AM. Despite sounding good in theory, concerns have been raised by students, parents, and teachers about the potential flaws in this system. Some students and teachers must travel for over an hour each day to get to school, meaning the easiest course of action becomes skipping breakfast and departing right after waking up. Plus, unplanned circumstances may arise during this time period, such as transportation delays. These reasons have led to discussion about whether or not having Band 1 begin at 8:00 AM is too early.
While it may be annoying or difficult in certain situations, starting school at 8:00 AM each day does more good than it does harm in the long run. So why shouldn’t school start later in the day? First of all, if we force the school start time later, the school end time will also be delayed. This means that if school started an hour later, students would generally arrive back home between 4:30 and 5:00. And that time only grows later and later if they have clubs, teams, part-time jobs, or other activities after school. The already limited amount of time given to students to complete work and other duties after school will be lessened even further by the institution of a later school start time.
This sets off a chain reaction that at the end of the day amplifies some of the very problems that students hoped to solve with a later school start time. If a student gets home later in the day and still has a lot of homework to do, it’ll force them to stay up later into the night in order to complete this homework. So while students will be provided more leeway to wake up later in the morning, they will also have to go to bed later as a result of the new school end time. Furthermore, delaying Band 1 will not solve the problem of students getting an insufficient amount of sleep.
In addition to fostering a reasonable daily sleep schedule for students, the current Band 1 start time provides other less obvious benefits. In general, an 8:00 AM start time aligns more closely with the typical professional working hours than if it were to be later. This means that students will likely share similar schedules with their parents, making it easier for coordination. Communication, event planning, and quality time with parents all becomes easier if everyone enters and leaves the workplace at the same time.
The point of school is to prepare adolescents for adulthood and the daily challenges brought along with it, and delaying the school start time would serve as a detriment to this goal. An early start time provides students with a more accurate representation of what their day might look like when they grow up and get a job, better preparing and readying them for adult responsibilities. Additionally, a stricter, less lenient daily system can teach a variety of important life skills and habits, such as time management, consistency, and early productiveness. While it may be annoying or difficult in certain situations, starting school at 8:00 AM each day does more good than it does harm in the long run.
While I myself often wish I could sleep in or have more leisure time in the morning, I know that the current schedule is the most responsible and most beneficial one.
