School Starts Too Early! by Kally P.

Do you know that the U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommends 8:30 AM as the optimum start time for middle and high school students?

And yet, the start time for Wayland Middle School is 7:38 AM.

So, why has Wayland established such an early start time, in effect creating a sleep and performance disadvantage for WMS students?

My guess is that it’s all about money: presumably, a later start time would necessitate more buses and bus drivers, and cost more money.

But doesn’t Wayland have one of the highest tax rates in Massachusetts intended to provide a superior education for its residents? What good is a great school if “We the Students” aren’t able to perform at our best because we haven’t had enough sleep. Somehow, in spite of the obvious objective of providing a top education for Wayland residents, our school system seems willing to disregard the strong influence of sleep on student health, productivity, and performance.

Do we really even need a CDC study here? Isn’t it basic common sense that adequate sleep is essential for everyone: from kids off to a busy day at school to adults off to a busy day at work (including our valuable teachers). We’re frequently reminded in the classroom to “pay attention” and encouraged by teachers and parents alike to “do well’, but how can we do our best if we are not getting enough sleep?

This is especially true for kids our age. Our minds need to be rested and ready to tackle the challenges of the coming day. If we don’t get enough sleep, we know that we tend to be less focused and less able to pay attention in class. As a result, we are often just plain tired, dragging and otherwise going through the motions (or worse, dozing off here and there, like that kid in the picture!).

That’s why the CDC recommends 8:30 as the optimum start time — because they have studied student performance and determined that students best waking up to start school at that time. Accordingly, the CDC has identified that a start time of 8:30 best positions students our age to function over the course of a school day and fulfill our after-school obligations. Clearly, 7:38 is a far cry from 8:30  — not even close (by comparison, the national average start time for middle/high schools is 8:03). Based on both the CDC and our own basic instincts, I think most of us would agree that a start time of 7:38 is just too early!

I’m trying hard to be the best I can be, but I feel my opportunity to best succeed is being short-changed. Personally, I have to wake up by 6:00 in order to get to school for 7:38 (my bus pick up time is 6:30). It would be one thing if we were only interacting among ourselves, living in a Wayland “bubble”. But we’re not. Like it or not, we’re in a connected world with kids who are not as sleep deprived and not operating at similar a disadvantage.

In my opinion, and I’m sure the opinion of many other kids who have to get up so early to make a 7:38 start time (and their families), WMS starts too early – plain and simple! Therefore, I urge our school system to consider adjusting our start time to later, even if it means school ending a little later (or, hiring more buses for the morning commute). While I realize this has scheduling challenges and/or financial cost, the benefit to “We the Students” of being able to show up at school better rested and better able to perform is more than justified.