According to David Arnold, with the National Education Association (NEA), longer school hours can spell disaster for some students. In rural areas, an eight-hour day may easily turn into a 12-hour day with travel time. David Arnold points to Japan as an example of what can result when students are pushed too much. While students in Japan help elevate the country to one of leadership in the global economy, particularly in technology, the nation pays a price for forcing students into long school hours and demanding high standards of achievement. That price: Japan leads the world in suicides among teenagers and children. That's a correlation deserving the utmost attention and caution when considering the effects of long school hours on students.
According to Stanford University, students already need more than the 6.5 hours of sleep they average each night. Students begin school early in most jurisdictions, some as early as 7:15 a.m. Depending on the travel time to school, students may have to rise as early as 4:30 a.m. in some rural settings just to get to school. The main problem is that lack of sleep inhibits memory and creativity, while making it harder to deal with stress and emotions. Schools in Minnesota, however, who have moved start times to 8:30, report better grades and fewer problems with discipline. With the average child needing 10 hours of sleep per night and the average teenager needing 9.25, the case for longer school hours appears detrimental to performance and development.
According to the UC San Diego Health System, health-care providers have long postulated that children can only optimize learning if they are healthy. What is the one biggest contributor to poor health among students? A lack of adequate sleep for starters, but it doesn't end there. Students need to have a healthy breakfast, get plenty of exercise, and take time for themselves. Boston University reports that the biggest health factor affecting people in all walks of society, including students, is stress. Howard Taras, M.D., Acting Chief of Community Pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine reports that while chronic health problems can't always be avoided, most health problems impacting learning potential can be avoided with the help of adults
With the compounding factors of stress, lack of sleep and poor health, academic performance plummets. Extending the school hours will most likely create more stress, certainly equate to less sleep for children (who already don't get enough), and result in worse health. While some students and teachers may want to have more hours to accomplish ambitious projects, adults need to realize students have different needs at their stage in human development. An eight-hour day for an adult may work just fine, but not for many students. The adverse risks are negative overall on the average individual and won't help them perform but in school. Instead, likely, grades will drop even further.