Cartoon by Mario Colas

School can be a very stressful and a tiring duty. Between getting up early, and then working academically for just over six hours straight, all anybody wants to do is go home. But usually, many students have afterschool clubs and sports that keep them from going home, along with homework that can take up a good portion of their time when they do finally get home.

There are many solutions for these problems. First off, school could start later in the morning, only about an hour or so, so students can get the extra sleep they need for the day. Studies show that teens’ brains don’t fully comprehend and learn until 10:00 am. Many schools around the country have made it so that high school and middle schools start around 8:30-9:00 am. In schools that have made this switch, the scores of their students’ grades, tests, etc have improved by 60-75%. Also, the amount of accidents involving teen drivers have decreased by 70% after switching times for when their school started, in order for their students to receive more sleep. According to teacher Ms. Kipp, the problem with starting school drastically later is that it could interfere with the Holbrook elementary school, causing the new Holbrook school building to be very crowded and hard to get through the pickup/drop off line.An idea that some students have thought about was to switch the start times between the John F. Kennedy and the Holbrook Junior Senior High school.

Another way to support this concept of getting more sleep and having more time for homework, while still having time to unwind, is to have a study period. This way, students can get more work done at school and not be up late at night doing everything last minute, assuming they have sports and after school clubs. Students would also be able to get more work done at school, resulting in more time the students have for activities and a decrease in stress the students could feel at home. By having a study period, students can also get to bed earlier and wake up refreshed for the day. It would also be less likely for students to fall asleep or lose concentration throughout the day if both new start times for the high school and middle school students, and a study period were implemented in the Holbrook school system.