In this corner of the ring we have the long reigning champ known as logistics. The way we have school times set up now is so that the youngest kids are picked up last so that they arent waiting for the bus in the darkest mornings of winter which is a safety issue. Elementary students get picked up last and middle and high school students get picked up first. School times that are currently in place exist because of parents work schedules as well as the students after-school activities. If school starts later then the students get out later and then their sports and clubs get pushed back and so does getting homework getting done and so on and so forth, into a giant snowball of reasons why not to start school after 8am.

On the opposite side of this argument we have the rookie, the supporter of later school starting times. Any teenager will automatically back this argument, even without further details. But there are scientific facts that back up this rookie argument that could KO the reigning champ. Teenagers dont produce melatonin until later in the night compared to adults and children, which is why they stay up later. So when they wake up early in the morning to get ready for school, there is still melatonin in their body which makes it very difficult to wake up. The teenagers are basically zombies during the first few periods as their bodies slowly wake up. If the school day started a little bit later than the students would be getting more sleep each night which may result in better attendance, higher grades and less of a chance of depression.

Im not even sure if I know where I stand on this issue. I remember my zombie mornings getting ready for school and barely remembering my first four classes of the day when I was in high school, but I did survive it, with decent grades. Then again, if my peers were given more time to sleep, they wouldve probably been equally successful with their grades and actually attend the first few periods of the day. But then would we have to shift the average work day so that working parents are able to get their kids to and from school safely? Where do you stand on this delayed school debate? Do you think school start times should remain the same as they are or should they start later? How do you think your high school experience would have been different if it started later in the morning?

Contributor: Emily Barrett