By: Dominic 

Dear Future President

We as humans have advanced, as a race. We were on the ground then we looked up and soared to the skies. We pushed that feat even further by going to space and landing on the moon. Which helped us impress the world. Although there is one factor that fits into all of those feats, sleep, you are probably really confused but let me explain. The brain is a very unique organ, it helps us by keeping info stored and that is essential for human advancement. So i am going to show you that starting school at 9 o'clock can help students get better test scores, have a better attitude, and live a healthier life.

Test and quizzes are very stressful for students. It is a way of showing if you have learned anything and that is very stressful. From the article “Does More Sleep mean Higher Grades?” By Nancy Dangier she says, “Most preetens need 10 to 12 hrs of sleep each night” “ Unfortunately some 68% of high school students sleep less than 8 hours.” This supports my claim by showing how students will not have the brain capacity to get better scores, my teacher Mr.Burke (From 8th grade) did a study and concluded that students with better sleep patterns did better on tests. He did this by telling 10 students to study for 2hrs before bed and he told them to go to bed at 8 o'clock, then he told 10 other students to study 2hrs before bed and he told them to go to bed how ever late they wanted, the average time was 12 o'clock. I called him up to ask about this and he told me he remembered giving them a test and the kids that went to bed earlier got all A’s and the kids who went to bed late got an average of a C.

Staying positive for me personally is what helps me get through a day of school. It is a natural reaction to make someone's day better and brighter. In the article “Let High School Students Sleep Later?” By the New York Times they say, “Schools with later start times have different social norms.” this shows that attitudes with students are rising and becoming more positive and leading to less cases of bullying and lower crime and violence rate in schools. In my free time i looked up a couple schools that had early start times, (I made sure these schools were in about the same state and location to get good evidence) and the rate of bullying was about the high 40% of students at those schools said that they have or do bully someone. Then I looked up schools in the same state and location of the early start schools, but these schools had later start times and about 13% of the students said that they have bullied or are being bullied. I know that is still bad that kids are being bullied, but it is still a big decline of bullying cases and that leads to a happier school time and experience.

Health as you know Mr/Mrs. President is a very important thing for the future leaders of america. We need to stay strong so that one day one of use can be in your seat. The article “School Starts Later” by Michael Bartis says, “80 school districts started later and have been healthier.” This proves my point that starting school later has a positive effect on our health. For school my sister did an experiment for the health of kids and the amount of sleep that they get, (disclaimer these were college kids and a college class.) She told some kids to sleep for at least 8 hrs and the other kids were told to sleep for at least 5hrs. After the week of the experiment she told the kids to come back and the kids who slept 8 hours did better in school and ad a very healthy immune system. For kids who slept 6 hours half of the kids were home sick with the flu, (out of 6 kids) while the other kids were very irritated and very nauseated. At the end she concluded that sleep is very important for someone's health and the funny part was she got the kids who slept 6 hours to get 2 days off of school to get some sleep, (I still wish I was in that experiment.) Thanks to my sister who did this experiment this proves my point that kids need sleep to be healthy and that only 2 hours makes a difference.

The point I am trying to make Mr./Mrs.President is you should make school at least in the eastern half of the United States start at 9:00 am you should start by pushing back the after school activities to not conflict with the later school times. Then proceed to make the schools start at 9:00 and it is as simple as that. If you don’t do this sadly we may lose our mental stability of the future generation grades will drop and violence will rise and all because you wouldn’t let us start 2 hours later. So make a decision have us go into a social break down or let us sleep in your choice.