Lochlan Downard
Staff Writer
Who wouldn’t want to sleep in? That’s the key question for the millions of high school students across the country who wake up in time to reach school before eight a.m. start time. Yet even here at R.J. Reynolds High School, despite starting an hour later, students are often tired; an hour start time difference not seeming to make a dent in attendance nor attention spans.
Why, then, would anyone want to go to school at eight? Starting earlier, in my mind, would allow student-athletes the opportunity to spend more time training in the daylight, especially during these short winter days.
During the cross-country season, our team would often return from long runs just as dusk had begun to settle. Even an hour to spare would have avoided such a situation entirely. For any Reynolds athlete that practices in the afternoon, an earlier end time would be welcome news.
I may be biased, but waking up in time to get to six a.m. swim practice has shown me that it is possible to maintain a schedule earlier in the day. In some ways, it might be preferable to do so. With my afternoons freer, I can focus on schoolwork when my mind is more awake.
The natural caveat to this line of thinking is that, with such a scheduling shift, the sleep of students would suffer. Yet, when taking the long view, it is the shifts in student sleep patterns that have done more damage than any change in scheduling.
According to the Pew Research Center, 54% of teens worry about spending excessive amounts of time on their phones, with social media and the endless barrage of content and engagement no doubt making a dent in their sleep schedules. This, more than start times, is the greatest determinant of student success.
Also according to Pew, 53% of surveyed teens said they had never attempted to limit their screen time, pointing to a glaring problem with students today. Even without schedule changes, students have become ever more tired at school in recent years. Simply put, it is not the schedule that has changed so much as the students.
An earlier schedule would simultaneously free up more of students’ afternoons and allow athletes more daylight to devote to their sports. It is possible and manageable for students to wake up earlier; rather than being a problem of feasibility, it is one of applicability. Reynolds has started at 8:55 a.m. for long enough that such a start time is expected; to apply such a change now would chafe at institutional momentum.
Yet it is still a bridge too far for Reynolds, due in large part to the new and growing problem of device-driven insomnia in teens. That issue cannot be solved with a schedule adjustment; rather, it is one of the great challenges of a generation that, for the time being, endure.
In other schools, the issue of earlier school start times is one of great, tangible significance. At Career Center, thousands of students like myself get to school by eight a.m. for the chance to access a wide range of AP classes, technical courses, and other educational opportunities not found elsewhere. The start time is not just a temporal marker but a signifier of educational drive, too.
Despite its inapplicability, an earlier start time for Reynolds could be just the thing to inspire similar verve in its students, especially its athletes. Yet the momentum of a status quo is meaningful; to change start times for Reynolds would be a disruption on many fronts for students. Nonetheless, it could be profoundly valuable, showing the potential of an alternate mode of education. In thought, at least, an earlier start time for Reynolds is an enticing prospect.