Last year, when the announcement was made that District D219 was going to make every Wednesday a late start, I was thrilled. At first, I didn’t think it was going to go through and actually happen since it’s a huge change to the school year. However, when I saw on the schedule that it was official, I thought of all the possibilities it would help students with.
Having a late start every Wednesday opens up many opportunities for students. Wednesday is one of the hardest days for students to wake up, I can speak for myself on that. Since it’s in the middle of the week, it’s nice to wake up just a little later than normal. These late starts are basically restarts, a refresh for the rest of the week. You’re not drained the rest of the week, knowing you’ll get a little extra sleep every Wednesday morning. You can hit your snooze button on your alarm a couple of times too now.
The Wednesday late starts are not just so students can have a little extra sleep each morning, but it’s also helpful to students who would want to come into school a little earlier and have some help on their work. Teachers are still expected to show up to school at the regular time. Therefore, students are able to let their teachers know that they would like to come into school earlier for help, or maybe even just meet with them and talk about what they are struggling with. I know you could do this on the days we don’t have late starts but, who really wants to wake up even earlier than they need to before school starts?
I feel as though teachers may think because it is a late start, students normally won’t be on time for class. However, when I walked into my first-period class on Wednesday at around 9:35, more than half of the students were already seated. If you were to compare a student on a Monday morning and a student on a late start day, you can see the difference in their appearance and attendance. Students were more alert, ready to learn and on time during late start days from getting the extra hour or so of sleep.
Some teachers or parents may disagree that there is no need for a late start every week, but when you think about how much this can benefit a student in so many different ways, it was a great decision. Students will not be sleeping in classes every morning because they didn’t get enough sleep due to them staying up and doing their homework the night before. The extra hour, or so, that these late starts will give students before school will help them improve their learning skills and themselves as a whole.
