Next year, Placer High School will start and end the day at a new time. Along with this change comes the possibility that the time students eat lunch will be different. The new hours you ask? School will begin at seven fifty-five and end at two fifty-five.
Right away one sees a positive to the new school hours. The new starting time will provide students with fifteen minutes of extra sleep in the morning. We all know that teenagers simply need more, because they do not get enough.
According to the American Sleep Disorders Association, the average teenager needs around 9.5 hours of sleep per night. Keep in mind though, while students do get the extra fifteen minutes of sleep in the morning, the amount of hours spent at school will remain the same. The challenge comes with the possibility of having lunch between second and third block rather than after block three as the current schedule maintains.
“I don’t think it should be that way. There’s not much of a difference; it will create more of a hassle,” said freshman Holly Hockett.
Hockett also thinks putting lunch between second and third is not beneficial.
“[Right now], coming back from lunch you just have to sit through one more period. But if they change the schedule you will have two [classes to sit through].”
People tend to not like change. I believe, however, it’s not the change itself that people don’t like, but the uncertainty associated that comes with change.
“It would be nice to sleep in for an extra fifteen or so minutes but we will still be in school the same amount of time,”
Like Hockett, Kanngiesser also agrees in not changing lunchtime. “Third and fourth, it’s actually lunch time.” said sophomore, Laurisa Kanngiesser. If you have lunch between second and third you just finished breakfast and your snacks.”
Of course there are those who love the idea of changing the start and end time of the day.
“That is awesome. I don’t want to get up early. Of course we have to go to school longer. It’s kind of a catch 22,” Said Junior, Darby Lawrence, but she does not agree with the idea of lunch being pushed forward a period; “Most people won’t be hungry between second and third; it’s too close to breakfast.”
One might argue twenty minutes extra hardly seems enough for a teenager to gain the required sleep.
“Doesn’t make much of a difference when it starts fifteen minutes later and end fifteen minutes later,” said sophomore, Eric Ivins who thinks that having lunch between second and third will be valuable. “Most students come in drowsy and tired, without food. They are more awake after third and fourth.”
“Almost all high school and college students do not get enough sleep,” stated Dr. William C. Dement, director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Stanford University. For teenagers, their alarm going off at six in the morning is the most horrible sound in the world.
“Personally I am a-ok with [the time change]. I am concerned for students who play sports and have a job. I don’t think twenty minutes is probably going to be beneficial to most people. I trust that the person who made this decision, Mr. E, thought this through and that it will work out for most people,” said Science teacher, Barbie Miller who also sees no problem with having lunch pushed forward a period. “It doesn’t bother me, seems it might work out for those kids who don’t eat breakfast. Might be worth a try; we might have to collect some data.”
So what questions need to be asked and answered to discover if this change will be beneficial? Will these two significant changes increase academic performance at Placer?
According to Research and Educational Services New York State United Teachers, “Research indicates that many high school students do their best learning in the afternoon. One study found that afternoon reading instruction produced the greatest increase in reading scores as compared to morning instruction.” This means that the later we start school, with school hours running later in the day, the better the learning.
Other things need to be considered as well. How will the new daily schedule affect school transportation? Will athletic teams find this a challenge, especially if the opposing school is on a different schedule? How will students who hold jobs be affected? Will this have adverse consequences for teachers and staff?
So the question still stands; will this new start and end time change the way students perform academically and physically? Will it really matter what period lunch comes before and after? Only time will tell.