Spencer C. Illinois

School Start Time

School start times are adding more stress to students lives that they do not need.

Dear Mr. Trump

It seems that there has been more pressure put onto students because there are so many more stressors than they used to have when they are younger. When students experience stress, they should be given more sleep, not less of it. For our entire lives, as we have gotten older school has started earlier. This is a main contributor to issues like depression, anxiety, stress, and fatigue. I walk through the halls everyday and see thousands of kids, some look ready prepared and happy as ever, but most look like they have been dragged out of bed, thrown on some clothes and stumbled outside just in time to get on the bus. These Students are the ones that have so much to deal with and so little time to deal with everything. Is it really fair to ask them to get up so early in the morning and be challenged to focus for 6 and a half hours straight while they are tired and just want to sleep the whole day? Students should not feel that they are being punished by having to go to school. School should be a positive experience for everyone who is involved because students are the future of our country. Students are constantly going to school and feeling ignored because nobody is listening to ideas like this. We are stuck in the traditions that have been set for the past 100 years, never realizing if we have the best plan because nobody has ever tried something new. Every child would be able to go to school everyday full of energy and ready to learn.

We have to consider the stress levels that students are going through. As a student that has gone through almost every grade level you can trust me on this one. Do you think that a kindergartner is worried about going to class think about counting from 30-40 or learning what vowels are while stressing over a big test? Now can you imagine a high school student cramming for finals, trying to go back and study every note that they have ever taken for 8 separate classes all before having to wake up at 5:30 sharp and getting into the ring with the hardest tests they will face that year? High School students are under as much stress as they could have thought was possible at times and they have to try and keep trucking through without skipping a beat so they won’t miss the AP World History notes and fall behind the entire class. The stress levels for students are rising but the amount of available time they have to study is decreasing. I may not be totally sure how to set up math equations but this certainly seems like a situation where it doesn’t add up.

Every student is being told to sit down and study, they are given little freedom in class and they only have a few moments a day where they are allowed to think creatively and be themselves. Think of this, classes will never change, 2+2 will always equal 4, George Washington will always be the first president, photosynthesis will always take place, and Tom Sawyer will always be getting in trouble. These things are being forced onto students to study, memorize, and know by heart when you walk into class every morning. A student can be forced to stay up til 3 in the morning typing that English paper because they are paranoid that they can not make it up to the teacher’s high standards. The fatigue is hurting the students and hurting their minds. Many students go home frustrated and confused when they leave school an add pressure to what the standards that we are wanted to meet has already put on us.

People have been questioning how you view teens for many years and it is starting to get out of had. You were quoted saying that “She’s probably deeply troubled and therefore great in bed. How come the deeply troubled women, you know, deeply, deeply troubled, they’re always the best in bed.” This shows how you view teens as objects and not as people. Nobody will ever see you the same because of how you view women. You target the emotionally damaged woman and that is how you get what you want.

I’m not saying that school isn’t important because it is. It is important for the student mentally, physically, and socially. If we didn’t have school I would know about 20 kids my age, instead I know about 2,000 because of all the kids that I have met through the public schooling systems. My main point is that kids are being told that school can decide your future. This seems like a pretty important message considering you can get a $200,000 scholarship if you truly earn it. What school boards don’t understand is that kids are not complaining about school because they have to think. They are complaining because they are being mentally drained day in and day out because they are asked to do to much. If we were to push back the start time of school it would increase overall school morale, attitudes, and most importantly grades. 

Metea Valley High School

Metea Valley Sophomore English

All sophomore students at Metea Valley High School wrote letters to President-Elect Trump, voicing their issues on ideas that are important to them. These letters were part of a three-week project, where we learned about rhetorical situation; types of claims; types of evidence; and embedding quotes.

All letters from this group →