Did you know that on average in our school there are 322 tardies a month? That would mean that about 17 students are tardy each day, and about 3 students are tardy each class period. One reason these numbers add up the way they do might be because of the time that school starts. We interviewed a couple of teachers on this topic asking, “How do you feel about the school start time?”
Mrs. Bledsoe says, “I think for this age group it should start later. There should be late start instead of early release, and I think that it’s important that students get their sleep. Besides that, the kids have more of a chance of getting into trouble during early release, whereas they would sleep during late start. ”
Mrs. Oster explains, “I believe once you have a good breakfast, and a good night’s sleep, 8:00 in the morning is perfect for starting school.”
Mrs. Willow told us, “I’m one of those people who like to sleep in, so I would love to sleep in until ten. But I am fine with starting at eight because if it started at ten, school would end at five. Therefore, I’m willing to get up earlier, to end earlier.”
Mrs. Hill replies, “I think it’s a good time for me, but I don’t know if it is a good time for students.”
We think that school should start later, but we do not like the idea of staying later. In other words, we pretty much agree with Mrs. Willow and Mrs. Bledsoe. Perhaps there would not be so many morning tardies if school started later, but we will leave it up to you to draw your own conclusions.
