Dear Future President,

It has come to my attention how high the expectations of the normal student have become. Over 8 hours of the day are devoted to being at school, in addition to the 8-9 hours needed for sleep in order to maintain the health of a growing adolescent. This means that students should be asleep by 10 pm, leaving students with 7 hours for whatever is necessary and although it may seem like a long time, the list of things needed to be accomplished is longer.

In this time, students are expected to participate in one or more sport with intentions of taking care of their health and/or impressing colleges by being active in school. In this time, students are expected to eat and take care of their hygiene and not everyone has food prepared and ready for them to eat once they come home. In this time, students are expected to finish homework for 6 or less classes each day in addition to studying for tests, quizzes, SAT tests, benchmarks, and AP tests. The pressure on students to get good grades is a cause of the deprivation of sleep. Students no longer see sleep as a bigger priority to homework. In this time, students may be expected to participate in a part-time job to support their family. And in this time, students are expected to have a life. Socializing and doing extracurricular activities such as clubs and/or hobbies are necessary for a healthy growing adolescent yet may not be possible.

As a result of this limited time given for students to accomplish all that, students sacrifice their sleep. The problem at hand is that there are not enough hours in the day for students to accomplish what society expects of them. A solution to this problem would be later starting times for school. Because students stay up so late, waking up early results in almost no time for sleep. Starting school later would greatly help students stay healthy. Knowing the possible candidates are parents, you should strongly agree that the pressure put on children to do well in school and excel is enormous. Later starting times for school would take some of this pressure off and allow students to do better in school, health, and life in general. Please take this in consideration because it’s not only a more healthy option, but it would also put the next generations at an advantage in order for them to succeed. Thank you for reading this and have congratulations on your election, Mr/Mrs. President.

Sincerely, 

Bella J.