How Long Should School Really Be? | Teen Ink

How Long Should School Really Be?

May 24, 2019
By mattibaird BRONZE, Cannon Falls, Minnesota
mattibaird BRONZE, Cannon Falls, Minnesota
2 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Every morning is almost the same wake up before the sun rises and go to a place that I don't even want to be at. have to wake up at 6 am which at that time it is dark outside, I wake up to an annoying alarm sound ringing in my ear. Roll out of bed and stumble to the bathroom to get ready, by this time the sun is just finally starting to show. After I'm ready it’s time to get into the car with my other 5 siblings who are extremely exhausted just like me. We drive to the nearest gas station and get coffee which is really my only way of staying awake every day. If I didn't get coffee I would probably fall asleep in class every day. Coffee is the only thing that motivates me to get out of bed in the morning and go to a place where most people hate being at. As a teenager, we can have a lot of energy or maybe none sometimes, which is why it is so hard for us to sit at a desk for 7 hours, we are always super tired or super energetic there isn’t really a inbetween. The only breaks that we get from sitting at a desk is an hour gym period which sometimes we have health so we don't even get that break, and the other break is a 30-minute lunch which isn't that much time at all. So out of 7 hours, we only get about an hour and a half break from sitting in a desk.

If our schools started later students would have the time to get 8 hours of sleep. Most students have to wake up before the sun even comes up just to get ready and have enough time to get to school. School for most students feels like a full-time job which it pretty much is. The average full-time job is about 40 hours a week which for a full week without a early release on wednesday we are in classes for 35 hours, so it is pretty close to a full-time job. According to Science Leadership Academy, many scientists have proven that if we went to school at a later time our brains would function better. So if this has been proven multiple times how come nothing has changed? The scientists claim that our brains don’t actually start functioning accurately until about 10 am which by that time we have already finished 2 classes at school. So does that mean that for those two classes students grades could be suffering because their brain might not be properly functioning yet? Another reason that we should start later is because it would give students more time to study and could also improve their health. Scientist have researched the health of a student that has a longer school day compared to a shorter school day and the student with the shorter day had much less stress, anxiety and was much more positive about school and what it has done for them.

There are many reasons why we haven't switched to shorter days and one of those reasons is because starting later could push back the start times of all extracurriculars which could interrupt family plans like dinner or church. Many students may have to quit sports or extracurriculars because they may interfere with family plans which may be very upsetting for many. Another reason why we haven't switched to starting later is because teachers are afraid that this would make the school days shorter which would mean that they would have to cram their lesson into a shorter amount of time so they might have to reteach the lesson because some students may not have understood the lesson because it was taught so quickly. Which could be a huge conflict that could affect many teachers. There is another big reason why schools haven't changed to shorter days and that is because many students parents that have a full-time job they couldn’t get there in time to pick up their child in time. So this could mean that the school would have to stay open later so parents could pick up their children or they would have to have a spot that the students could go after school hours.

There are schools in other countries that have shorter days one of those countries is Finland. Finland’s education system excels over many other countries educational systems. Finland's education system is considered by many as the best educational system in the world. An average school week contains about 45 lessons with each lesson taking about 45 minutes, which averages out to about 3 hours and 45 minutes of school every weekday. These shorter days have improved their testing scores and their students outlook on school. there are many fewer students that don’t have high levels of anxiety that could be the result of long school days for 5 days a week.

In conclusion, having shorter school days could have many positive and some negative effects on the educational systems. One of the best examples of the positive effects of having shorter school days is Finland. Their educational system is said to be the best in the world. But on the downside of shorter days, there is stressed teachers that may have to teach quickly and could have to reteach if students don't understand. There have been studies that prove that students with shorter days have less stress and anxiety about school and their school work. Overall I think that many schools could benefit by shortening their schools days.



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