Corie+Hahn+Persuasive+Speech

=**Pre-Writing: **= Corie Hahn 

=**Rough Draft: **=

How many of you sleep later than twelve on a school night because of the excessive amounts of SATs, homework, tests, quizzes, and projects? Every weekday excluding holidays, we as the students are forced to wake up early just to arrive at school. Statistics show that the average high school brain does not wake up until 9:00 A.M. Now imagine our KIS classes starting as early as 8:00 A.M. Going by the statistics, do you think that students would perform well in their first class of pre-calculus, us history, or physics? Probably not. My solution to this problem is that schools, or at least KIS should start school at 9:00 A.M. to make student’s life much more beneficial and build the ultimate foundation for better work.

Research done by the two Minneapolis area school district, Edina and the Minneapolis Public schools who changed their start time from 7:15 to 8:40 showed that students by the end of the year, 92 percent found it much more helpful and preferred the later start times. There were also reports of less depression, reduction in school dropout rates, and students earning higher grades. The research, essentially, shows us as students and hopefully convinces all schools out there that school starts way too early and that it should start at 9:00 A.M. This research also shows that high school students can benefit when we push back the school times and have much more distinct and realistic sleep patterns.

Now, as juniors, it is a very crucial time to be thinking about your GPA and what college you want to go to. Fast forwarding, imagine that you have gotten into the college of your choice and you want to decide what college courses you have to take. Excluding some of the classes that are mandatory for you to graduate and helps your major, college classes vary in times and are not limited by the restrictions of waking up at 6:00 A.M,, some even 5:00 A.M., just to get to a class. College classes can even start at 12:00 to even 6:00 P.M. As students in this school preparing to go to college, is it not crucial that we must practice these free schedules instead of being constrained by these evil time limitations? I thought so.

While experts say that high school students should get at least eight hours of sleep each night to perform better success in their education, most of us KIS students do not even get to sleep six hours because of the excessive amounts of work. As I would love to build a system where teachers cannot give lots of homework, quizzes, and tests, that goal is too unrealistic as all classes have their own specific work that needs to be done at each student’s household. However, we can build a much more realistic goal which is to push back the school schedule one hour so that students can have more rest instead of sleeping in classes. Sleep deprivation can change students’ moods, performance, attention, learning, behavior and biological functions. Sleep is important for everyone and is an important biological function that is required.

However, there are more than 13,000 schools in the United States that starts school earlier than 9:00 A.M. Now, you may be thinking that this goal is unrealistic and that it will never happen. But, all we as the students are asking is for Mr.Christenbury to have an open mind about this and realize that with just one hour, students are able to perform much more better in their school work. Our schedules are tight enough as it is and with one more hour of sleep, we as the students would have a much better chance of setting our paths to better academic success. The change needs to start now. With your help and from Mr.Christenbury’s help, we can make it so that school starts at 9:00 A.M. instead of 8:00 A.M.

=**Final Draft: **= 

Corie Hahn 21 Sept. 2009 English 11 Ms. Jacob

Can One Hour Really Help?

Looking at the clock every two seconds, the time just seems to pass away as you desperately try to finish your Pre-Calculus homework before it is due on the test day. When it is finally finished, you open up your US History textbook and shift through the pages as you try to concentrate for the big exam tomorrow. Dozing off at five A.M., you lose focus and before you know it, it is time to wake up at 6 A.M. to get ready to go to school. This seems like the typical lifestyle of a junior attending KIS. How many of you can relate because of the excessive amounts of SATs, homework, tests, quizzes, and projects? Every weekday excluding holidays, we as the students are forced to wake up early just to arrive at school. Statistics show that the average high school brain does not wake up until 9:00 A.M. Now imagine an average KIS day that starts early as 8:00 A.M. Going by the statistics, do you think that students would perform well in their first class of Pre-Calculus, Us History, or even Physics? Probably not. My solution to this problem is that schools, or at least KIS should start school at 9:00 A.M. to make student’s life much more beneficial and build the ultimate foundation for better work.

Hahn, 2 Research done by the two Minneapolis area school districts, Edina and the Minneapolis Public schools changed their start time from 7:15 to 8:40 A.M. and showed that students by the end of the year, ninety two percent found it much more helpful and preferred the later start times. There were also reports of less depression, reduction in school dropout rates, and students earning higher grades. The research, essentially, shows us as students and hopefully convinces all schools out there that school starts way too early and that it should start at 9:00 A.M. This research also shows that high school students can benefit when we push back the school times and have much more distinct and realistic sleep patterns.

Now, as juniors, it is a very crucial time to be thinking about your GPA and what college you want to go to. Fast forwarding, imagine that you have gotten into the college of your choice and you want to decide what college courses you have to take. Excluding some of the classes that are mandatory for you to graduate and helps your major, college classes vary in times and are not limited by the restrictions of waking up at 6:00 A.M,, or even 5:00 A.M., just to get to a class. College classes can even start at 12:00 to even 6:00 P.M. As students in this school preparing to go to college, is it not crucial that we must practice these free schedules instead of being constrained by these evil time restrictions? I thought so.

While experts say that high school students should get at least eight hours of sleep each night to perform better in their education, most of us KIS students do not even get to sleep six hours because of the excessive amounts of work. As I would love to build a system where Hahn, 3 teachers cannot give lots of homework, quizzes, and tests, that goal is too unrealistic as all classes have their own specific work that needs to be done at each student’s household. However, we can build a much more realistic goal which is to push back the school schedule one hour so that students can have more rest instead of sleeping in classes. Sleep deprivation can change students’ moods, performance, attention, learning, behavior and biological functions. Sleep is important for everyone and is an essentially a biological function that is required.

However, there are still more than 13,000 schools in the United States that starts school earlier than 9:00 A.M. Now, you may be thinking that this goal is unrealistic and that it will never happen. But, all we as the students are asking is for Mr.Christenbury to have an open mind about this and realize that with just one hour, students are able to perform much more better in their school work. Our schedules are tight enough as it is and with one more hour of sleep, we as the students would have a much better chance of setting our path to better academic success. The change needs to start now. With your help and from Mr.Christenbury’s help, we can make it so that school starts at 9:00 A.M. instead of 8:00 A.M. Remember, the change needs to start with us.

"Later Start Times for High School Students - Research Works - College of Education & Human Development (Univ. of Minn.)." College of Education and Human Development, University of Minnesota. Web. 21 Sept. 2009. .