Every day that a teacher stands up to teach, a kid ends up falling asleep. Sleep deprivation is an epidemic that surrounds our school every day; however, day after day nothing is being done to combat the issues. We keep making policies that are meant to “fix” the problem, but you can’t fix a problem that doesn’t have any solution but sleep. It is time that Archer adopts the trend that other school districts are following: 4-day school weeks.
The closest “big” city to Archer is Wichita Falls and that is roughly a 30-minute drive away. This means for students that live in Wichita they have to wake up earlier than everyone who lives in Archer to get ready for school. On top of having to wake up earlier than everyone else, they also have to drive 30 minutes in order to get to school. Driving while sleep deprived is just as dangerous as driving while under the influence of alcoholic substances. We are expecting our students to drive as early as 7:10 a.m. just to get to school by 7:40. That is horrendous and appalling at best. The highway alone is long and winding with multiple curves that have caused wrecks throughout the school year and have even led to the deaths of some individuals. I do understand that tese problems would still be an issue if the 4-day school week was adopted; however, having one day to be able to sleep and catch up on everything would be extremely beneficial to the school body.
From a later start time to adopting a 4-day school week, there are multiple ways that we can fix the issues of sleep problems among the student body. The smartest course of action will be for us to adopt the 4-day school week idea. By only having students attend school for four days a week, it allows for students to gain the most optimal amount of sleep throughout the week. A teenager should be gaining approximately eight hours of sleep a day. Teens that go to Archer City High School can’t get this amount to sleep because they have to follow the unrealistic guidelines that are set in place. Four-day school weeks also allow students who take dual credit courses to finish up their work at home away from school’s stressful environment. Personally, trying to work on my college work and then having to listen to people screaming, announcements that are not important and being told that I am not allowed to go to a quieter place, make a significant dent in my productivity throughout the day. This would also attract more students and teachers to ACISD.
I understand that by adopting a shorter school week, we would most likely have to run further into the summer, but we shouldn’t prioritize the summer fun over our students’ safety.