Eight hours a day, five days a week, most of your time is occupied by being at school. It can be beneficial, but only to the point where students are not being burnt out.
Education is important, of course, but for teenagers who are also balancing other things in their lives, it can be hard to organize it all.
As a student who has been in an after-school sport, works 2-3 times a week and participates in extracurriculars outside of school, I can confirm that getting out even 15 minutes earlier would make a difference.
For the eight hours we are at school, about half an hour of it is used for what Omaha North High School calls Viking Time. It’s a shorter period set out for students who need help navigating their schedule and time to do unfinished work.
Last year, students were able to go to other classrooms for clubs, hanging out, or homework help, called Viking Choice Time. But this year, the Omaha North High School administration decided to remove Viking Choice Time.
Without Viking Choice Time, having an advisement class is pointless. It is extra time spent at school that the majority of students would rather spend at home.
This extra time spent at school can cause more students to be unmotivated to attend school.
The more time spent at school, the more kids want nothing to do with schoolwork when returning home, which can lead to no homework getting done or achieving bad grades.
According to the American Psychological Association, “research from psychologists and others indicates that later school times correlate with more sleep, better academic performance, and myriad mental and physical health benefits.”
With kids under 18 needing from eight to ten hours of sleep, it can be very difficult to achieve this with a full eight-hour school day.
If the Omaha Public School district decided to take this into consideration, realistically, we would get either a 15-minute-later school start time or get dismissed from school 15 minutes earlier, which could both be beneficial.
Before 2015, Omaha Public Schools high schools ran from 7:40 A.M. to 2:45 P.M. At the time, the idea was controversial and caused many debates among school officials, family members, and union members. The change was brought on when the board voted 5-3. According to KETV, the reasoning for extending the day was to “provides more opportunities for advanced coursework as well as reinforcing the basics.”
Although shortening the day seems appealing to many students, another idea to consider would be turning each week into a four-day week.
According to the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA), 84 percent of families and 95 percent of students who are already in a four-day school week schedule would continue to choose a four-day week over a five-day week.
This would give students more time on the weekend, but it would also add 50 minutes to each school day, to make sure students do not fall behind.
This is a great idea and possibly a solution for failing motivation in students.
According to an analysis of the Challenge Success-Stanford Survey at Miramonte High School, student burnout is rising significantly.
Alongside negative health issues, academic pressure and stress can also be a result of spending too much time at school.
In this same research study, 77 percent of students reported they feel pressure to do well in school often or always.
It is widely known that too much pressure is never good for anyone, especially high school students.
If school districts want to succeed in educating high school students who will graduate, with good work ethics and successful lives, they must consider the mental health that each of their students have as well.
So, a solution for that would be for the district to consider how long the school day is, and to decide to shorten it for the benefit of students and for the district itself.
