Michelle                                                                       Expos. Writ. – Ms.Gokturk

Due date: Jan.5^th 2004                                                        Argument Essay – final draft

Have Mercy On Us Students

             It began around the start of my freshman year in high school. I was in my first period English class, when suddenly, I was overpowered by a force I could not resist in the least bit. Sleep. I fought hard and long – or so it seemed – but I kept dozing off, in and out of consciousness. I sat in the second row where the view was clear for my teacher to see, but she must’ve felt sorry for me, seeing that she left me to my battle. That is, unless it was just moi not having heard her say anything. When I finally woke, everybody was packing their bags and getting ready to leave. I felt deeply apologetic to my teacher for having slept in her class, but at the same time, deeply gratified.

According to a national survey in 1999 called ‘Sleep in America,’ a majority of the teenagers are not awake in the morning. sixty percent of teenagers under 18 years of age are tired in the morning, and around fifteen percent fall asleep in their morning classes. "Our research has shown that biological changes during puberty affect an adolescent's internal sleep-wake clock. Many adolescents are physiologically not ready to fall asleep until 11:00 pm or later, and awaken later in the day," explains Mary A. Carskadon, Ph.D., Sleep Research Lab Director at Bradley Hospital/Brown University, Providence, RI, and National Sleep Foundation Pediatric Council Chair. So, if our bodies are made to function in this way, everybody should all just say, “Oh, well, too bad for the teenagers. They can just drag their lazy selves out of bed,” and forget about what we said. Right? Wrong. Many high school teenagers have extracurricular activities or sports of some kind to attend to after their school day ends. The average kid gets home around 7pm or later, takes a shower and grabs dinner, by which time, it would be around 8:30pm. Now, many of the times, high school teenagers, particularly juniors and seniors, get homework that takes more than 3 hours – especially when they have a paper that’s due. Early next morning, they groan and drag their immobile bodies out of bed, oppressing sleep and tiredness that had accumulated from sleeping late the day before, extracurricular activities and/or sports, and from other days preceding this one. At school, friends’ reddened eyes and heads nodding off to dreamland are enough to demonstrate that they’ve experienced the same. If only the school time system could start later in the morning, we could preserve our health and relieve the stress on our irregularly functioning bodies that Mother Nature gave us teenagers.

Now, if sleeping late and waking early is harmful for teenagers’ bodies, what would it do to our mental state? For one thing, we become “more prone to increased use of stimulants, negative moods, behavior problems, and difficulty controlling emotions," according to the National Sleep Foundation. Placing grumpy teens together would be just like placing a bunch of tigers together in one cage. Also, many students cannot help but drift off to sleep in their morning classes, and even those who don’t, often have fuzzy trains of thoughts, which means their minds are not as alert as they would be later in the morning. All of this put together combines to tell us something: teenagers’, or rather students’, minds do not function to their full potential early in the morning. If we fall asleep during class or are unable to concentrate, then wouldn’t that be just a waste of education? In order to get the full benefits from our schools, it would be in the best interests of all for schools to commence later in the morning.

School districts in 20 states have already pushed back the time of their first bell, and slowly but surely, obtained results. It has been reported to the National Sleep Foundation that, “Students do not fall asleep in class,” and, “Rates of student depression and illness have decreased, and grades have improved.” Some may say, for example, if school does start late at around 10:00am, by the time school ends and we finish sports practices or extracurricular activities, it’ll be really late. But us teenagers’ bodies are made to function in such a way, that we fall asleep late and wake up late, so this time system would be naturally fitting for us. However, if you must insist on going home earlier than when you’d get home by what has just been suggested, after-school activities or sports practices may take place before school starts. And yes, changes such as this would affect the entire community, and at first, it may seem different and uncomfortable. But we’ve all experienced changing circumstances and assimilated to it, and if we all put in a little effort, we just may get something worth the while – maximized efficiency of education for our future generation.

In order to make the most of our education, schools should make the sacrifice – which will be small compared to the huge benefits we’ll receive – of starting schools a few hours later in the morning. By not having to wake up before our natural wake-hours, students will be able to absorb more learning than ever before, with minds that are alert and attentive. And as an added bonus, the later school hours will have positive effects on our physical, as well as mental, state of health.