Alexis G. Illinois

Fight For a Better Education

Today's kids have multiple hours of homework each night and are still expected to be at school at 7 in the morning. How can we expect them to be focused?

Dear Donald Trump,

There have been multiple times this year already where I have been up late doing homework. Semester one has not even finished and I'm up doing homework til 3 am. The next day I am unable to do most of my school work due to lack of concentration. I only have eight classes yet I still get 2-6 hours of work. I don't get home til around 4 pm and I start my homework as soon as I can. I do it for a good 2 hours before I go to eat dinner. Dinner usually takes me an hour so by the time I go back to doing my homework it's already seven in the afternoon. Right after dinner I begin my homework again and sometimes it only takes me another hour or so, those days i finish my homework around 8-9 in the afternoon but after getting ready for bed all together I don't actually end up going to sleep until around ten at night. On the other days, after dinner I am up past midnight working on my projects or homework. The days I stay up doing homework til the next day aren't good for my education because then the following day (or same day) I am not doing my best on my work which greatly affects my grades.

With the late homework nights and waking up super early in the morning, school doesn't go very well. I usually doze off for the first three periods of the day. I can't stay concentrated or focus for the entire beginning of the day. If students can't focus on their work they aren't learning much or anything at all for that point so why do schools start so early in the morning? I think school times should be delayed to a later time because the children aren't getting much done within the time we would knock off of the mornings. I have researched and found out that most schools refuse to change high school timing because of financial issues. The major issue they deal with is the school buses. They pay the school buses to pick up high school, middle school, elementary schools at certain times so they don't clash the pickup and drop off times.

A few schools around the United States have begun to change school timings. Studies have shown that students that get more sleep tend to do better on their academics. There are some schools in Chicago who have already enforced later start times. For example district 214 has stated that their middle and high  schoolers are now starting at 8:30 in the morning unlike our 7:20 start times. Although they were able to start school later in this district, many schools are still being turned down by the education board. I want you to try to enforce later start times for school so students can be more successful in school.

Metea Valley High School

English 2, Period 7

Mr. Page's very-totally-awesome 7th period English 2 class at Metea Valley High School in Aurora, IL.

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