Whitman Hanson's "Morning Blues"

           Whitman Hanson is one of a few schools in the state and in the country to start at as early as 7:05. Although we get to start early and end early, is this really beneficial to our performance in our classes and athletics?  Studies have shown that high schools starting at 8:00-8:30 give the students and teachers the recommended amounts of sleep, usually 8.5 hours, which improves student performances and the morning slumps that most students obtain during the school week.

            “I like the early starts because regardless of what time you wake up , you are still going to be tired. Therefore, I would rather start earlier so that there is more time to do outside of school activity” said Junior Mikayla Bates. Many students here at Whitman Hanson would agree with the statement given.  Some of the benefits with having an early start at 7:05 is that students are let out of school at 1:40 and on the half a days they are let out at 10:15.  Other benefits to the early starts, include the intention of sports athletes having more time to practice and get ready for their games. With the early releases, students are able to rid of the burden of homework earlier than rather doing it later at night.

            The benefits of these early starts also comes the downfall, for 5 days a week students wake up between 5 and 6:30 rushing to beat the 7:05 bell in the morning.  The lack of sleep students acquire during the night can be a leading factor to the dreaded ‘Morning Blues” most students encounter during their high school career.  “ I don’t like the early starts that much because I’m still tired in the morning and I’m not fully ready to take on the school day at the start time of 7:05” said Freshman Keeley Zimmerman. Junior Colleen Hughes expressed her opinion on the daily start time,“ I like that we start early and then we get out early and lets me have time to do homework. But during hockey season, the early start time is tough with my 5 am practices. I have to rush around to make it on time to school.”

             The morning bell at 7:05 can have benefits and disadvantages to the average high school student. With the benefits of getting out early to do sports and get homework out of the way comes the disadvantage of being tired and being rushed in the morning. Therefore, are early starts really a good thing?
-Olivia Zimmerman '18